A year on, BU functions without finance officer

Even a year after asking the government to appoint a finance officer, the Bangalore Central University continues to function without one.

Incidentally, this also means that the vice-chancellor of the university has been signing all the cheques in the absence of the finance officer, which, according to sources in the varsity, would amount to conflict of interest.

Prof S Japhet, university vice chancellor, claimed to have made attempts in the past to reach out to the government for the appointment of the finance officer.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, he said the varsity had written to the Department of Higher Education a year ago, seeking to fill the post. He added that while he was appointed as a special officer for the varsity at the time of trifurcation, he was vested with powers to perform the duties of a finance officer. However, he said he was not sure if he had the same powers now as he is the vice chancellor.

“I had sought for the appointment of the finance officer a year ago. I have not heard from them yet. However, I do not see any problem in me signing the cheques,” he said. The university has proposed to introduce nine new postgraduate courses. These would include English, Kannada, Economics, Political Science, Urban Planning, Sociology, History, Philosophy and Social Work, according to Prof Japhet.

This is in addition to the eight departments that are functional.

With regard to infrastructure, he said since evaluation is under way in the Physics and Natural Sciences block, they would be handed over in a few months.

"We will get the Physics block by June 16, while the Natural Sciences block would be handed by August 1," he said.

Foreign languages dept to be renamed

The university will rename the 33-year-old foreign languages department as the Centre for Global Languages.

Prof Jyothi Venkatesh, chairperson of the centre, said the department was offering a five-year integrated course in French (MA) from the current academic year.

“This year, we are introducing an integrated MA course in French and the next academic year, we intend to start an MA integrated course in Spanish, German and Chinese languages,” Jyothi said. She said the admissions to these courses had taken a beating following the trifurcation of the varsity.