Herculean tasks await new Vice Chancellors

Can Osmania University ever produce a Nobel Laureate? Whenever I enter Arts College building, an architectural marvel and pride of the 103-year-old Osmania University, this question invariably crosses my mind. Despite the best of optimism, I fail to get a confident 'Yes, why not?' reassurance.

"Are you kidding?" asks a thoroughly startled professor. "How dare you even think on those exalted lines?" fumes a senior teacher. "It is akin to expecting an Oscar for an amateurish short Telugu film," quips a journalist. "Covid seems to have blown-off your brains," grimaces a close friend.

"By the way, what is a Nobel prize, Anna?" could be a present-day politician's gullible poser! Good news is that the Telangana government appointed Vice-Chancellors for 10 State-run Universities, albeit after keeping everyone guessing for two long years. Exactly a year ago approval was given for five private universities through an ordinance.

If you want to keep 'churning out' hoodlums in the society, just go ahead and destabilise the higher education system. Wittingly or unwittingly, the damage has already been done and it'll be a herculean task for the new VCs to cleanse the system and put the house in order, let alone thinking of producing a Nobel laureate.

A good number of universities sprouted in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, thanks to YS Rajasekhara Reddy's idea of bringing higher education to the doorsteps of students. However, due to lack of patronage, dearth of funds and improper university setting, especially infrastructure and game-changing teachers, the idea ended up as a damp squib. True, they doled out degrees but jacked up the number of educated unemployed youngsters.

The Telangana-based State-run Universities, epicentres of the high-voltage agitation for a separate State, crumbled drastically after achieving the goal. Though the agitation was vociferously spearheaded by top-class academicians and intellectuals, the post-bifurcation political apathy almost ruined universities. The subsequent Covid crisis sounded the death knell for the rudderless varsities where administration allegedly came to a standstill.

National Education Policy-2020 observed that effective governance and leadership enables the creation of a culture of excellence and innovation in higher education institutions. The common feature of all world-class institutions globally has indeed been the existence of strong self-governance and outstanding merit-based appointments of institutional leaders.

If the incumbents have to spearhead the institutions at a particularly critical time and salvage lost glory, especially with regard to Osmania and Kakatiya, then they need the overwhelming support of the government, teachers, students and civil society.

Here is the agenda I conceive for the new VCs.

Earn Respect: In ancient times, India was a centre of higher learning and universities like Nalanda attracted global attention. China's Hsuan Tsang studied and taught here for five years in the 7th Century AD Nalanda, with over 10,000 students and 3,000 teachers, which flourished as the centre of scholarship in the ancient world for about seven centuries.

A product's demand depends on the manufacturer's reputation and brand image. Our universities are fast losing respect of the society in general and industry in particular. Degrees, PhDs and gold medals awarded by them are not taken seriously by the industry as the products, students, unfortunately, are of late seen as rabble-rousers and trouble-makers with inferior knowledge levels.

With the appointment of experienced teachers and administrators as VCs, may our students become entrepreneurs, scientists, thinkers and intellectuals to transform universities into realknowledge hubs. A collective endeavour should be made to bridge the prevailing gap between theory and practice.

Industry-connect and society-centric initiatives coupled with a robust communication and public relations mechanism are required for this purpose. No university, however, has a professional corporate communication wing to create goodwill and build brand image.

Stop politicking: The bane of Indian universities is too much political interference. The selection of the VCs should be based on pure merit, instead of political, regional and caste equations. VCs and Registrars should not serve the political interests of the ruling party.

Similarly, the powers-that-be should give a free hand to the VCs as they know the inside out of quality education.This is the time to switch over to 'learning and teaching mode' from the 'agitation mode.' How about declaring a 'political holiday' for all Telangana universities for time being?

Shun caste bias: Our learning centres are caught in caste quagmire. Ideally, caste considerations should stop after students' enrollment and teachers' appointments and promotions. It is indeed harmful to look at everything from the caste prism and nobody has the liberty to vitiate the campus atmosphere with prejudiced views and preconceived notions.

Every effort should be made to follow equality for a harmonious campus life. Of course, it is the birth right of students to debate, deliberate and protestagainst undemocratic social and political issues but imposition of ideas with coercion is not desirable.

For instance, campuses like JNU make headlines for ideological warfare and freedom of expression of students and faculty. At the same time, academic excellence is also ensured there.A good take away for us.

Enforce Discipline: The worst problem in our universities is academic indiscipline. A majority of enrolled students do not attend classes but manage to get 'legitimate' degrees. Professors who insist on attendance and submission of assignments are branded 'anti-students.' Faculty members look the other way when it comes to attendance in the face of threats and abuse, verbal as well as physical.

In addition to IPC and CRPC, a special Act to protect faculty members from attacks by students becomes imperative. The two nagging issues that the authorities are unable to tackle are—some students overstaying in hostels against norms and focusing on competitive examswhile ignoring the courses they are pursuing.Students should be counselled and sensitized on the perils involved in these two tricky issues.

An after-course lodging and boarding mechanism with a placement facility may be envisaged for a stipulated time-frame for the benefit of students from economically-deprived sections. At the same time, the new VCs should be wary of indolent or teach-shy faculty members who love to cling on to administrative positions.

Become self-sufficient: The new VCs should chalk out strategies to make every department self-reliant to tide over financial problems.

Can't we emulate IIMs and IITs to augment ourselves? Innovative and industry-relevant courses could be a good source of revenue. Alumni networks may be roped in to get nominations for such courses. A faculty-incentive scheme for bringing high-ticket research and training programmes should also be announced. Students are accustomed to online education during the Covid crisis and the virtual learning mode would come in handy for VCs to go for international collaborationsin a big way.

Revamp research: Modern educational institutions earn respect through research and publication of the research work. Take any top university in the world, like Harvard, Cambridge, Columbia and Oxford. A special emphasis is on research. Whereas, research in State-run universities leaves a lot to be desired. Many professors lament the large-scale plagiarism in research work.

The grades and reputation of universities go for a toss with such unethical practices and guides should be held responsible for the malpractice to send a strong signal.The copied research works that led to an award of a PhD degree should stand cancelled.

Many deserving students are unable to take up research in the absence of scholarships or grants. Strong proposals from VCs exploring the possibility for a tie-up with local industries or NGOs or Foundations for sure will yield positive results. Besides improving facilities in libraries, there is a need to expose students to reputed national and international publications to enhance their intellectual horizons and critical thinking.

Employ talent: Teachers are the backbone of any education system. The long-pending faculty recruitment provides a great opportunity for the new VCs to rope in the best minds into the system.

Recommendation-based appointments and the sale of faculty positions should be treated as treason or sedition. Those who bought faculty positions in universities would invariably discourage research to cover up their inefficiency. Moreover, they resort to caste and other types of politics to survive in the system.

Encourage extra-curricular activities: A binding factor among students is the beyond classroom activity. That includes elocution and essay writing competitions, plays and dramas, sports and games.Universities all over the world are producing authors, speakers, painters, artists, and players while we don't consider extra-curricular activities as an exercise for overall development of youngsters.

Literary and cultural festivals, and sports clubs need more patronage tobring out the best among the younger generation. Inter-university and university competitions with decent cash prizes should be treated on par with academics. Extra-curricular activities like sports help improve camaraderie, togetherness and peace on campuses.

The winners of Nobel, Oscar or Olympics are not directly diving out from blue skies. A careful nurturing of talent and continuous support to innovations can produce champions in all fields. Self-belief, hard-work, out-of-the-box thinking, team spirit, dogged determination and humility are said to be the common traits of the winners.

The new VCs should take the task of producing intellectuals of international calibre very seriously. If not today, we may see a Nobel Laureate from our state-funded universities in the years to come.

As they say, you reap what you sow!

(The author, a PhD in Communication and Journalism, is a senior journalist, journalism educator and communication consultant)