Inbreeding ails Telangana universities

​Hyderabad: Does inbreeding over the years in the State universities in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has been proving a big hurdle for improving standards?

According to sources, earlier, State universities had faculty coming from across the country in various departments. But, from a little over two decades, it had been derailed. The universities were forced to recruit mostly the students who have completed their studies in the same universities.

In turn, this had encouraged inbreeding bringing several complications along with it. They include resistance to change, not able to adapt to new areas of research and development, and new courses to become competitive vis-a-vis other prominent state and central universities in the country.

Senior university officials from the Kakatiya, Osmania, Andhra and Sri Venkateswara Universities pointed out, “There are teachers who have been making a difference regularly updating and teaching and carrying out research in the emerging areas. However, inbreeding remained a hurdle for any vice-chancellor or the university to rope in young and new talent from anywhere in the country, to infuse fresh blood among the teaching faculty, research and training areas.”

This was mainly due to the pressure mounted by various stakeholders like students from the same universities, existing faculty as well as successive governments. And, this has become a rallying point for the private universities to gain a considerable edge over the State universities and to introduce new courses in line with latest skill orientation and demand in the job markets.

Adding to this, various teaching vacancies lying vacant for over a decade has further hit the state universities hard to make significant efforts to step out of their safe zones. Telangana Save Education Committee (TSEC) executive secretary Prof K Laxminarayana said, syndicates or executive councils of respective state universities could take a policy decision, which is already in place in the central universities. That is, not to encourage inbreeding but to source talent from across the country.

“We can ask our students to go out for five-years or so and prove themselves. Then, the recruitment should be made open for them in the State universities,” he added. Following this, the Osmania University had already decided to recruit faculty from abroad by making use of a central scheme.

And, the Kakaitya University too is mulling to go for it, following granting autonomy to it by the UGC, said Vice-Chancellor Prof R Sayanna. Similarly, Andhra and Sri Venkateswara varsities too are now moving ahead with proposals to source young postgraduates from reputed institutions from various parts of the country to increase their competitive edge.

Andhra University Vice-Chancellor Prof G Nageswara Rao and SVU Vice-Chancellor Prof A Damodaram said both universities have achieved top rankings on different counts. And, steps would be taken to further strengthen the teaching and research segments.