With all thy faults, I love thee still
Your anthem reads that all founts of knowledge have been at your bidding command and you flow like a Vitasta of gnosis through our bosoms. The University of Kashmir popularly known as KU has a beautiful landscape that embraces the wisdom of our past and has been leading us on till today.
Ever since this seat of learning came into being, its alumni have served to the best of their capacity in varied work sectors; be it academics, research, politics, social work, mass media, film making, bureaucracy, business, law and judiciary. Of late, the varsity has introduced various engineering and technological disciplines. KU offers a pool of courses in basic sciences, applied sciences, humanities, journalism, mass communication, languages, literature, law and fine arts with an up-to-date curriculum or syllabi.
With its growing profile in research and academics besides an upgraded infrastructure, it has gone 20 notches up from 53rd to 33rd position in the last National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). The University ranks among the 2000 best global universities, figures in the 1000 best in Asian subcontinent and is among the top 100 in India. Though it is still far from the prestige that can make one fill with awe, nonetheless the rate of its progress is commendable in the backdrop of various socio-political conditions it has lived through. With a consistent grade A+ accreditation from NAAC, the University is the best of the five universities in Srinagar.
The list of notable alumni glorifying the institution include Karan Singh, the veteran parliamentarian and the crown prince of Kashmir; Adarsh Sein Anand, the 29th Chief Justice of India; eminent politicians like Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Mehbooba Mufti, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Saifuddin Soz and G N Ratanpuri; Davoud Danish Jafari an acclaimed economist; Farooq Nazki the broadcaster and media personality; Dr. Sheikh Javid an accomplished physicist and Indian-American fellow; Dr. Bharat B. Chattoo, a JC Bose National Fellow and bio scientist; the directors and executive heads of various state government departments, the ex-Vice Chancellor Dr. Khurshid Andrabi, the serving Vice Chancellor Dr. Nilofer Khan and counting endlessly.
Dear mother varsity, you are blessed with enough beauty and enough bounty yet there are declining ambitions, simmering discontent and a growing deficit in your enrollment. Why is it that the manner of your appointments has always been under the scanner. Why can’t you be undisputable and unambiguous or fair and clear. Why do you have to prove or disprove. Why is there a history or a running chain of allegations on you. How many gold medalists of the recently held convocation, have had the opportunity to be your faculty or higher researchers. Rather the average students are turning out to be your average contractual to average faculty. Why do you just need a few extras to run the show and not the extra ordinary. Why do you settle for conforming people than challengers. Why do you trick and topple the toppers. Why do you wind and wobble the winners.
Those who you throw and flow in the teaching stream may not necessarily streamline it. I make this attestation even if it may be an exception and not a generalization. Yet the exceptions prove the rule and you cannot escape to bear the brunt of allegations that have once again resurfaced in the wake of some recent news. This has to be undone anyway lest your glory goes away.
The cream of students from various departments since yesteryears has a common story to share, the lyrics of which have been repeating and reverberating over decades. As they could not be given any passage to higher reaches, they went outside the folds of KU to crack the most prestigious state level and national level competitions and were appointed to promising positions by more or less impartial recruiting agencies. The lesser peers who could not make it fell back in your lazy lap only to pile up degrees, serve as contractual for years to finally seek permanent appointment as caretakers and not as competitors. These never changing stories have set a monotony rather a malady which needs to be cured. You have been a wholesome subject of investigation for the current dispensation whom we thankfully owe the upcoming 2022 bill for university recruitments.
Let the fair get the share and let the mediocre improve for the next chance. Let a JRF qualified candidate be rated better than GATE qualified and GATE be rated better than NET. Let not a PhD or a percentage count more than desired. Let there be a committee to settle the weightage or even applicability of SET exam since it is far less contending and has a dubious scheme of results. Why do some students get their PhDs in a small stipulated time even though during this course, they get married, have children, construct houses and get occupied with the social adventures. On the other hand, why do some other hard workers get it at a far end even after suspending all the life affairs for the apex degree. Moreover, I am deeply worried by the same scales of evaluation of sciences and humanities. Moderation is practiced in evaluation of sciences even in UPSC competitions. But at your place sciences are getting more lengthier to pursue than humanities.
Thankfully I have come a long way from one of your prestigious science departments. I recall the memories and the miseries. Nevertheless, you are my alma mater, next to my father, mother.
Dr. Qudsia Gani, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Physics, Govt. College for Women, Srinagar
