BU gives ill-equipped colleges another chance

Bangalore University will send notices to all its affiliated colleges, asking them to immediately appoint principals as per the norms prescribed by the university. Colleges that do not have qualified principals will be given a month’s time to appoint them.

At the Academic Council meeting on Saturday, vice chancellor Prof B Thimme Gowda decided that the varsity would follow a time-bound approach to improve the quality of colleges. This came in the light of the university’s Local Inquiry Committee (LIC) reports pointing to discrepancies in infrastructure in several institutions affiliated to the university.

As many as 21 such committees inspected 542 colleges and presented their reports to the Academic Council. The university decides the status of affiliation of the colleges based on these reports. About 49 colleges had applied for fresh affiliation, of which 32 were granted the same. As many as 493 had applied for renewal and 476 have received it.

It was noted in the committee reports that many colleges did not have qualified principals. Some did not have sufficient staff and others had basic infrastructure problems. In spite of this, a majority of the institutions are getting renewal of affiliation as the officials concerned have stipulated that they should work towards achieving the quality in a time-bound manner. Disaffiliating all institutions may be detrimental to the larger interests of students, the officials felt.

Colleges that do not have core faculty in sufficient numbers will be given about three months’ time to comply with the same, Gowda told mediapersons on the sidelines of the Academic Council meeting. Instructions for the same will be sent along with the intimation letters of their affiliation for the following academic year, he said.

The university adjourned the meeting and decided to meet again on June 3. The varsity is yet to approve 10 more LIC reports.