The dearth of faculty in University of Mysore (UoM) has affected the student-teacher ratio and also its overall rating which has dropped to ‘A’ from ‘A-plus’. Out of 667 teaching posts, the university currently has 272 posts and the guest lecturers are being appointed every year to deal with the shortage of teaching posts.
Disclosing this at the Academic Council meeting here on Thursday, Vice-Chancellor G. Hemantha Kumar said the student-teacher ratio has touched 1:25 and this was one of the key reasons for the drop in NAAC rating.
Five years ago, the student-teacher ratio was 1:17 as the university had around 400 teaching posts. With the superannuation of many professors, the vacancy list has grown bigger, and the NAAC does not consider the support of guest teaching faculty in its assessment, he explained.
The presentation of research papers has also dropped to 4,000 from 5,000 a year with the shortage of professors, associate and assistant professors.
JD(S) MLC Manje Gowda took exception to not getting a reply to his letter and brought to the notice of the VC the issues he had raised in his letter. After replying to his questions, Prof. Kumar explained reasons for the drop in NAAC rating.
Replying to Academic Council member Shashi from Mandya, the Vice-Chancellor said he would once again write to the government to consider inclusion of Academic Council members, like the Syndicate members, in the college inspection committees.
Mr. Shashi sought the inclusion as he does not want to give approval for the renewal of recognition and affiliation of degree colleges merely on the basis of the report submitted in the meeting without examining their infrastructure.
He and a professor got into a heated argument on the issue of renewal of affiliation to degree colleges. “Will the university accept zero inadequacies in colleges while granting affiliation? Has there been any instances of affiliations being cancelled for lack of infrastructure?” Mr. Shashi asked.
Intervening, the MLC suggested writing again to the government for the inclusion of AC members in the inspection committees to get first-hand experience of their facilities.
The VC agreed to the suggestion and said he would arrange a presentation on the facilities of each college at the AC meeting for the perusal of the members.
After a detailed discussion, the meeting approved restricting the duration of principals in the UoM’s constituent colleges to three years as there have been cases where principals were in the post for 10-15 years, denying opportunity to other competent staff.
The meeting also approved a hike in fee for online courses and one-time online examination for the Chinese students who are unable to return to Mysuru due to visa issues for facilitating their completion of B Tech course. Despite the objection from the Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, Basavarajappa, the appointment of Dean to the School of Engineering was approved by the meeting as Prof. Hemantha Kumar defended the decision citing Syndicate approval.
Registrars Shivappa and Gnanaprakash were present.
