UVCE faculty members choose to remain with Bangalore University

Almost all of the 80 faculty members at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) have decided to remain under Bangalore University (BU), which could leave the 106-year-old institution with a severe shortage of teachers.

Before being made into an autonomous IIT-like university, the UVCE was the constituent college of BU.

UVCE faculty members have decided to request the government to give them an option to choose where they want to be. So far, the government has given options only for non-teaching staff members.

Some of the departments have already conducted meetings and passed resolutions to remain with BU, considering their post-retirement benefits and other services.

The civil engineering department has resolved thus: “The department teaching staff expressed their solidarity towards the Bangalore University and resolved to continue to be in Bangalore University. Further, it is resolved to urge the Bangalore University to start a school of engineering in the interest of students and teaching staff.”

Even the UVCE Teachers Association, a registered body, has written to BU Registrar requesting for an opt-in and opt-out facility even for teaching faculties.

Speaking to DH, Association president HC Chittappa said there is a provision in the law to choose.

“There are 80 teaching staff on the rolls and almost all of them have decided to stay with BU,” he said.

He further explained that this was considering the hardship faced by some of the staff who opted out of BU during its bifurcation and trifurcation. “We’re ready to support UVCE until they hire new staff, but we all want to remain with BU,” Chittappa said.

There are six departments in UVCE of which two departments — Civil and Architecture — are housed at BU’s Jnana Bharathi campus.

Meanwhile, some faculty members say they are worried about UVCE becoming too corporate. “Looking at the members on the Board of Governors... we feel it will turn into a corporate world with less importance for academics,” a senior faculty member said.

However, BU is in a dilemma. The university does not have an engineering department to accommodate UVCE staff.