Hyderabad: Is Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s reported directive to close insignificant academic courses and shift faculty members engaged in teaching those courses to administrative positions causing concern among academics? If Vice-Chancellors of State universities are tasked with deciding which departments should be shut down for not offering 21st-century relevant courses, which faculty members will face the cuts? These questions have sparked an interesting discussion within the academic community, especially considering that several departments are still teaching outdated courses with only cosmetic changes made to the syllabi for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes over the years.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior professor expressed support for the Chief Minister’s initiative, stating, “All that the Chief Minister is asking for is to make the courses relevant to current knowledge requirements and employability.” He further noted, “Many students are not attending classes these days because the syllabus in some courses is so monotonous. There is a widespread feeling among students: why should they listen to classes, as they feel it is not going to help them, either in getting jobs or to pursue their passions?”

Against this backdrop, sources from Osmania University revealed that, with a few exceptions, the issue is more prevalent in the social sciences and humanities departments.

If the Vice-Chancellor has to make tough decisions, the first department that may face cuts is the Department of Philosophy.

When asked about this, a former Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University stated, “According to the Western tradition, this subject area is called the ‘Queen of Knowledge.’ That is why, in various fields such as social sciences, humanities, and even sciences and engineering, the degree awarded to teaching faculty is often titled ‘Doctorate of Philosophy in Science, Technology, and more.’ However, he added, “One can check what its contribution is to the knowledge and skills needed in the 21st century. Further inquiries revealed that most of the syllabus taught in the Department of Philosophy at Osmania University and in several other conventional state universities since the time of united Andhra Pradesh focuses on teaching the histories of Indian and Western philosophies and traditions. Mostly, the teaching is heavily dominated by Western knowledge Frameworks’. When it comes to the Indian knowledge traditions, most of the students, postgraduates and research scholars are not in a position to read even any of the original texts and depend only on the English translations. This situation affects in coming up with original and creative contributions vis-a-vis their counterparts like in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

This contrasts sharply with central universities and the Indian Institutes of Technology, where students engage with philosophical traditions that are relevant to contemporary issues and are interdisciplinary in nature. However, transferring the one or two faculty members responsible for the Department of Philosophy at Osmania University to administrative positions would essentially mean shutting down the entire department, sources have indicated.