Split leaves state universities in Karnataka cash-strapped; quality of higher education takes a hits

Kalaburagi: The state-run parent universities in Karnataka have been struggling to fulfil financial commitments to retired employees after the government’s move to split them.

The previous BJP government launched the ‘One District, One University’ initiative to decentralise administration and reduce workload on massive affiliating universities.

However, splitting these institutions plunged six parent universities into deep financial and administrative crisis due to dwindling internal resources as they lost substantial affiliation, registration and exam fees.

Grants cut

The universities are finding it difficult to pay pension benefits to retired employees as the government is paying only 50% of grants for this purpose by putting onus on them to generate resources for rest of the expenditure.

Declining student enrolment, static government funding and staff crunch have dealt a severe blow to the parent universities after the split, jeopardising quality of higher education.

Karnatak University in Dharwad, Gulbarga University, Kuvempu University in Shivamogga, University of Mysore (UoM), Mangalore University and Bangalore University were bifurcated or trifurcated over the last few years.

This helped distribute heavy burden of managing hundreds of affiliated colleges. But the cash-starved parent universities are reeling under deficits as they are burdened with pension payments, unlike newly established universities.

UoM Vice-Chancellor N K Lokanath said disbursing monthly pension benefits of Rs 10 crore to 1,976 retired employees presented a tough challenge.

However, he maintained that the Rs 100 crore grant (for all parent universities put together) sanctioned by the government for this purpose in this year’s budget would last for 7 to 8 months.

“Our university is confined to Mysuru district after independent universities were carved out for Mandya and Hassan. More than 200 colleges were affiliated to us before the division and this has reduced to merely 100. We are running the university with only 20% of sanctioned permanent teaching staff, which adversely impacts education standards. So, we have sought more funds from the government,” he said.

Gulbarga University V-C Shashikant Udikeri said the university incurred annual expenditure of Rs 75 crore to Rs 80 crore, including pension benefits. But it can internally generate only around Rs 5 crore through student admission fees.

The internal resources have reduced considerably after the establishment of Bidar and Raichur universities, which resultied in a fall in student strength from 25,000-30,000 to 11,000.

The government released a Rs 100 crore grant in January and Gulbarga University’s share of Rs 15 crore helped pay pensions to retired employees for a few months, he said. 

The government has been directly paying pensions to its retired employees through the Human Resource Management System (HRMS), an integrated centralised software platform that automates core HR processes, including payroll. 

“The same process should be followed by the government for paying retirement benefits to university employees. But it has directed us to earmark some part of internal financial resources to disburse pensions, which is a difficult task. I have been facing a lot of pressure as the university’s financial condition is worsening,” Udikeri said.

Bangalore University has its own statute in which pension benefits are distributed from interest earned on fixed deposits. So, it is not feeling the burden of retirement benefit payments, totalling Rs 110 crore every year.

However, the university’s trifurcation into Dr Manmohan Singh Bengaluru City University and Bengaluru North University reduced the revenue of the parent university on the Jnana Bharathi campus, adversely affecting development activities.

“We are finding it difficult to undertake works like renovation and painting of buildings belonging to various departments due to fall in internal revenue sources after trifurcation. Student enrolment has reduced by 30% after trifurcation and establishment of Maharani Cluster University and Nrupathunga University. But the government pays only Rs 10 crore - Rs 15 crore for pension benefits, which is not enough,” V-C Jayakara Shetty M said.

Karnatak University in Dharwad, state’s second-oldest, is battling a financial crisis for the past six years. It is crippled by acute shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff.

According to Higher Education Minister M C Sudhakar, only 29.32% of sanctioned posts are currently filled. This severe shortfall has adversely impacted the university’s academic progress. Student enrolment in postgraduate courses has also been declining. Nearly half of the seats remain vacant in some departments.

The fate of Kuvempu University in Shivamogga and Mangalore University is no different. They resorted to cost-cutting measures like fee hikes, delaying pensions and halting certain academic programmes.

Retired economics professor Vasudev Sedam, who was part of the four-member Karnataka Regional Imbalances Redressal Committee headed by M Govinda Rao, said the government failed to provide required facilities and grants while pursuing ‘One District, One University’ initiative.

“The government did not appoint qualified teachers after posts fell vacant in parent universities. This affected quality of higher education, resulting in students shifting to other educational institutions,” he said.