A section of academics have expressed concern over the launching of four-year undergraduate programmes in colleges affiliated to the University of Calicut in the upcoming academic year.
The university Senate is yet to pass the regulations for the courses though they have already been cleared by the academic council. When the issue was taken up during the Senate meeting held on March 26, member P. Rasheed Ahammed pointed out that it was illegal to issue an order on the regulations without proper discussions. However, the debate could not be taken up in view of the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha polls. The next meeting of the Senate is scheduled for June 11.
Functionaries of the Kerala Private College Teachers Association (KPCTA) said on March 27 (Wednesday) that the academic community was concerned about a possible delay in launching the courses in the 2024-25 academic year. K.J. Varghese, KPCTA regional president and P. Rafeeq, secretary, pointed out that the draft syllabus for the courses were yet to be published. Many autonomous colleges were planning to start the four-year courses on June 1 itself. Without the Senate clearing the regulations and the syllabus, they would not be able to move forward. They claimed that improved infrastructure and enough number of teachers were required too. The restructuring of workload for aided and private college teachers and dumping of the weightage given to faculty members teaching postgraduate courses had led to removal of teachers’ posts, the KPCTA functionaries said. Many more posts of faculty members teaching complimentary posts would soon disappear, they alleged.
Senate members such as V.M. Chacko and P. Sulfi also said that the university had not been holding enough meetings of the Senate to discuss important academic matters.
However, university sources told The Hindu that there was no need of any apprehensions as the clearing of the regulations was just a technical issue. All the other formalities ahead of the launch of the courses, such as training for teachers and preparing the curriculum framework, had been completed. Vice-Chancellor M.K. Jayaraj has already clarified this, they added.
