After concerns over BGSBU, Education Minister to review functioning
Srinagar, Aug 30: Minister for Education Sakina Itoo is scheduled to review the functioning of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU), Rajouri, on Monday in the wake of widespread allegations of mismanagement plaguing the varsity in recent years.
The minister’s intervention comes a day after this newspaper reported about critical issues impairing the University’s working, including acute shortage of faculty and to-level administrative inertia.
The September 1 meeting, to be held at Civil Secretariat Srinagar will be attended by the Vice-Chancellor BGSBU, Registrar, Joint Registrar, Managing Director RUSA, Director Finance Higher Education Department (HED), Special Secretary to Government HED, Director Planning HED and Chief Pay and Accounts Officer BGSBU.
A top official said the minister will take a holistic review of varsity’s academic and administrative functioning, and pass spot instructions on boosting the University’s image which has taken a hit following reports suggesting a steep downfall in its academic and administrative standards. “All aspects (of the University’s mandate) will be thoroughly reviewed,” the official, privy to the meeting agenda, told Greater Kashmir.
The University recently drew bad press after PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti, alleged mismanagement in its functioning and urged the Government to safeguard the academic interest of the students. Apart from several key administrative concerns, an RTI response recently revealed that 60 percent of faculty positions at BGSBU are vacant for years together, thus burdening the junior professors beyond limits.
Following the Greater Kashmir story published on Saturday, the University authorities invited applications for ‘walk-in-interview’, on academic arrangement, for assistant professor/teaching assistant. However, filling up the vacant positions on a permanent basis remains a major concern, and is likely to come up for discussion during Monday's meeting to be chaired by the education minister. The official said another critical issue facing the University for the last six months is the absence of a full-fledged Registrar, which is majorly hampering the smooth working of the University. The charge of Registrar has been given to the Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri, as his additional assignment for last six months.
Even though the faculty members acknowledge that the in-charge Registrar finds two to three hours on a weekly basis to visit the University, the task of the Registrar itself is full-fledged and cannot be undertaken as an additional assignment with an officer who has the entire district to take care of.
Even the charge of Dean Academic Affairs and Dean Engineering are with the University’s Vice Chancellor, as an additional charge. “The University should have a full-fledged Registrar who can dedicatedly focus on managing the University affairs. Any in-charge arrangement is bound to further the administrative chaos,” a top official said.
The officials said the minister should order an academic audit of the University and probe into why several new programmes were introduced in the last few years without the requisite faculty in place.
