The cash-strapped Kannada University, Hampi, is exploring ways to mobilise resources on its own. A proposal to seek the government’s nod to take affiliations from colleges in the newly carved-out Vijayanagara district, to this end, has caused outrage among teachers at the university and those formerly associated with it.
Kannada University, set up in 1991 through a special Act passed by the State legislature, is a unique university dedicated only to research. Thus, it is a unitary university with no colleges affiliated to it. Affiliations, however, are a major source of revenue to other universities.
The proposal to take affiliations from colleges in Vijayanagara was discussed at a meeting of the teachers’ association on Monday, sources said.
The university has been dependent on the State government for resources since its inception. However, allocations from the government have dried up in the past three years.
Deputy Chief Minister and Higher Education Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan, speaking to The Hindu recently, said, “Self-financing is the best solution in the long term. The university needs to mobilise resources on its own too.”
Vasappa Badigera, president of the teachers’ association, said the proposal was discussed as one of the solutions to become financially self-sustaining. However, he said there was widespread opposition to it at the meeting. “Taking affiliations from colleges will change the research orientation of our university and will also bring us out of the ambit of the special law. Moreover, we are a Kannada university and do not have corresponding departments to those in colleges to take their affiliation,” he said.
Matter of preservation
That such a proposal was even discussed has drawn the ire of many. Noted linguist K.V. Narayana, formerly associated with the university, said there had been opposition even to starting postgraduate courses at the university and teachers had foiled earlier attempts to bring the university under the ambit of the Karnataka Universities Act, 2000.
“This is the only such university in the State dedicated to language and research. Its character must be preserved at any cost. Taking affiliations from colleges would only ruin it,” he said.
The root of the problem lies in the reduction of grants to the university from the State government over the past three years. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation.
The lack of funding has come under severe criticism from noted writers and political opposition. “It is inhuman to starve the university of all financial resources, which is effectively murdering it. If there are issues at the university, the government needs to address them, not stop funding it. If that is what the government wants to do, it should make its stand and reasons public and shut the university down,” said Purushothama Bilimale, a former professor at the varsity.
