Reject the recommendations of Dr.V.C.Kulandaiswamy Committee report - MUTA submits its opinion
MUTA submits its opinion on the report of the Committee on upgradation of Government and Government aided colleges into unitary universities
Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa and Alagappa University Teachers’ Association (MUTA) submits its opinion on the report of the Committee on upgradation of Government and Government aided colleges into unitary universities.
The Committee headed by Dr.V.C.Kulandaiswamy has analysed the rationale for upgradation of Government and Government aided colleges into unitary universities. Quoting the World Bank studies, the Committee emphasizes the importance of human and social capital compared to infrastructure and natural resources.
The Committee has factored in the following to make human and social capital:
• Opportunities for obtaining higher education;
• Capacity for creation of new knowledge;
• Ability of the people to make use of the developments in science and technology.
Under the heading 3.Higher Education in India, the Committee argues against the affiliating system and affiliating colleges in India which are unique in the world. For this, the Committee quotes the comment of our colonial master Lord Curzon and the National Policy on Education (1986).
The Committee reveals the fact that an unplanned evolutionary growth has continued unchecked in the field of higher education. Perhaps the bureaucracy in the higher education sector would have subscribed to the philosophy of market economy which stoutly abhors planning.
Under the heading 4.Economic Development and Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), it has recognized the well defined correlation between economic development and gross enrolment ratio in higher education.
The Committee states that to achieve the status of a developed nation, we have to reach 20% GER in higher education by the year 2020. At present the GER is 10%, to make it 20% in 10 years is a gigantic task in deed. But to increase the GER to 20%, allowing private universities is not the solution.
The Committee rightly identifies the issues involved in higher education such as increase in quantity, improvement in quality and promotion of research. But the strategies it adopts to address these issues are not acceptable.
Under the subheading II. Affiliated Colleges, to double the intake in tertiary education, the Committee commits itself to increase the number of institutions by establishing new ones and increase the admission strength in the existing institutions by strengthening and expanding them. But elsewhere in the report it rejects these strategies.
In its zeal for conversion of colleges into unitary universities, the Committee denigrates the affiliating colleges established by the Government itself as mere tutorial institutions. If so, how can these so called tutorial institutions be converted into unitary universities?
The Committee wants to move higher education which is now mostly in the affiliated colleges, to universities predominantly, if not completely, over a period of time on a planned basis.
The Committee strongly feels that the teachers should demand that the quality of under graduate education is upgraded to stand comparison with undergraduate degrees from any university. No doubt that the teacher organisations like MUTA, AUT and TNGCTA were demanding improvement in the quality of undergraduate education. Confronted with the challenge of improving the quality of higher education, the Committee proposes conversion of colleges into private unitary universities which will not serve the purpose.
When aided private colleges are already groaning under the yoke of reckless private managements which grossly flout the TNPC(R) Act and Rules with impunity, what will happen if these aided private colleges are converted into unaided private unitary universities bestowed with their regulatory powers?
The MUTA is of the opinion that the regulatory powers of the university cannot be vested with the private educational agencies. These powers must remain with the state agencies which are accountable to the people and on which there is social control. If the private educational agencies are bestowed with regulatory powers, they will use these powers to achieve their profit motives. In an already commercialized field of higher education, these unaided private unitary universities will become a hunting ground for predatory private managements in Tamilnadu.
Under the heading 5.Higher Education and Research, the Committee rightly points out the fact that for almost two decades, India’s research production stagnated. It further states that China outperforms India substantially both in quantity and quality in research output. To create knowledge society, China has created 100 world class universities. It is a pointer to the education policy makers, planners and administrators in India who should impress the persons at the helm of affairs to pump in more funds for research and creation of world class universities.
Under the heading 6.Increase in number of universities, it ropes in National Knowledge Commission to strengthen its argument for creating unitary universities.
We bring to the attention of the Government of Tamilnadu that the National Knowledge Commission recommends the creation of 1500 universities through private participation. It is obvious that the Committee endorses the views of National Knowledge Commission that the doors are to be thrown open for unaided private unitary universities in Tamilnadu.
The Committee cites the experience of converting the Agricultural College, Coimbotore, The College of Engineering, Guindy and the Veterinary College into universities. These institutions became the best in their respective fields. The Committee conveniently forgets that these institutions achieved excellence because of state funding and their status as state aided universities. On the other hand, we can cite the example of Annamalai University, though a state aided university, going astray because it is in the hands of private management. So the question of state control is very essential for a university which wields regulatory powers.
In this context, the Government of Tamilnadu should take into consideration the obnoxious experience of de-novo deemed universities which are a thorn in the flesh of higher education. Out of 44 deemed universities in Tamilnadu, 17 of them are facing derecognition by the UGC/MHRD. If these deemed universities were the Frankenstein monsters created by the Government of India, the private unaided unitary universities would be the Godzillas to be created by the Government of Tamilnadu.
Under the heading 7.Upgradation of colleges into unitary universities, to increase the number of universities, the Committee envisages the following strategies:
1) Establishing new universities and university level institutions by the Government of India all over the country.
2) Establishing new universities by the state governments.
3) Establishing universities by upgrading deserving colleges.
4) Establishing new universities by private providers.
By rejecting the first two strategies for the development of higher education in Tamilnadu, the Committee adopts the last two strategies to create private unaided unitary universities. This is a clear neo-liberal strategy of striking two birds at one stroke.
The Committee cleverly circumvents the pertinent question of the status of unitary universities as far as funding is concerned. What will be the status of the Government aided private colleges after being converted into unitary universities? Will they be aided private unitary universities or unaided private unitary universities? Nowhere else in the report, the Committee states that the state funding will continue for the salary of the teaching and non-teaching staff of the private unitary universities.
The Committee talks about the pension, service conditions and pay and allowances of the incumbent teaching and non-teaching staff but not the teaching and non-teaching staff of the private unaided unitary universities. To state the obvious, the teaching and non-teaching staff of the private unaided unitary universities will not enjoy the pension benefits, service conditions and pay and allowances enjoyed by the aided private college teaching and non-teaching staff.
COUNTER POINTS TO THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON UPGRADATION OF AIDED COLLEGES INTO UNITARY UNIVERSITIES
1) The aided colleges have received government grants over the years for salary, infrastructure development and maintenance etc. Each of these colleges has created a brand image created out of the hard and untiring work of teaching and non-teaching staff. This represents intellectual capital. All these physical and intellectual assets rightfully belong to the Government. Hence any attempt to hand over them completely, without any consideration, to private educational agencies on the pretext of upgradation is nothing but robbery of public assets. Even when the public sector companies were privatized, the Government raised huge amount by way of disinvestment. Even that was detrimental to the interests of the country. On the other hand, it is proposed to transfer the public assets to private college managements on a platter without compensation by way of conversion of aided colleges into unitary universities.
2) When a college is converted into a unitary university, the less popular UG courses would be wound up. Both teaching and non-teaching staff will lose their jobs. Consequently, the enrolment in higher education will fall rather than rise.
3) The policy of reservation will not be followed either in the appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff or in the admission of students. This will be a death blow to the policy of social justice pursued for six decades in Tamilnadu.
4) In the university, the focus on teaching is less. At the UG level, teaching is to be given more importance rather than research. We are blindly following the theory that research is of supreme importance at all levels of tertiary education. Even now the rural and Tamil medium students struggle to understand what is being taught in the Science and Professional UG courses. Hence rural students studying at the UG level will be severely affected because of limited emphasis on teaching in the university.
5) There will be no restriction on the amount of fees to be collected especially for the courses to be started by the university after its creation. It may be noted that even now, the state funded universities are conducting self-financing courses by charging hefty fees against the students. Being an autonomous body, the Government was not ready to interfere in fixation of fees in these universities. If this being the case, the Government may not be able to have any control over the affairs of the private unaided unitary universities, not to talk of fixation of fees by the Government in these universities. As a result, more eligible students may not afford to pay the fees to be charged by these universities and they may opt out of the higher education. This goes against the spirit of social justice.
6) The fee concession, free bus pass and scholarship enjoyed by the students in the aided streams may not be available to students studying in unaided private unitary universities.
7) An aided college has no profit motive which will be lost if it is converted into an unaided private unitary university. A private university has no social obligation and will be run on commercial lines, thus depriving the masses of their rightful entitlement to higher education.
8) When a staff under the aided stream retires, the private unitary university will take over the post. In due course, all the posts will come under the university control. Hence the Government aided posts and along with them the Government control will vanish.
9) Finally, the Committee may give any number of assurances regarding the continuation of pension, pay and allowances and service conditions for the incumbent teaching and non-teaching staff in the unitary universities. But they cannot be practically ensured. Even Government assurances have not been effective in several cases. The service conditions of the teaching and non-teaching staff will be severely affected, as there will be fewer opportunities for appeal against punishments slapped on the staff.
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN TAMILNADU
MUTA gives the following suggestions for the consideration of the Government of Tamilnadu to improve the quantity and quality of higher education in Tamilnadu:
1) Open more number of state funded Central and State universities.
2) Open more number of government colleges especially in rural areas.
3) Convert unaided courses in aided colleges into aided courses.
4) Allocate more funds for improving the infrastructure of Government and Government aided colleges.
5) Open new and inter-disciplinary courses in Government and Government aided colleges.
6) Bring amendments to the Tamilnadu Private College (Regulation) Act,1976 to make the College Committee more democratic by inducting more number of elected teachers and non-teaching staff to the body.
7) Recruit qualified, meritorious teachers to the aided colleges through Teachers’ Recruitment Board without giving any scope for nepotism and corruption.
8) Shift system may be introduced in aided private colleges.
9) It is worthwhile to quote Dr.P.M. Bhargava, Former Vice Chairman, National Knowledge Commission.
“As regards education the most important division in the country today is between those (numbering less than 10 per cent) who have access to good education and those (adding up to 90 per cent) who have only education without any value. The former are the rulers and the latter are the ruled.
To be truly independent as a nation, and to maintain national dignity, India needs a knowledge society in which every citizen has a minimum amount of knowledge. The country can do that only by decommercialising and decommodifying education and setting up a Common School System (for which there has been a continuous demand since the days of the Kothari Commission in the early 1960s) in which the students of the rich and the poor in the same neighborhood would be studying in the same school without paying any fees, and with a new curricular framework. That is the only way for us to ensure education security.”
Finally, we once again remind the Government of Tamilnadu to consider the assurance given on 28-08-‘08 by the Honourable Chief Minister of Tamilnadu that the Government will consider the views of teacher organizations and will not take any decision which will affect the interest of the college teachers and students. Hence, we earnestly request the Government of Tamilnadu to reject the recommendations of Dr.V.C.Kulandaiswamy Committee report.