AMUCT delegation meets VC to discuss educational issues

AMUCT delegation meets VC to discuss educational issues

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, December 16: A delegation comprising members of the Association of Mangalore University College Teachers (AMUCT) approached T. C. Shivashankara Murthy, the vice chancellor of Mangalore University, to discuss various issues related to undergraduate education.

AMUCT brought the VC’s attention to the fact that teacher empowerment is the need of the hour and urged him to consider the matter of fixing a minimum monthly scale for teachers working in on a temporary basis in private colleges. According to an official AMUCT press release, the VC said that he will send a circular related to this matter to all colleges affiliated to the Mangalore University.

It also requested the VC to include more teachers as members of the committee set up to review the recently developed credit-based semester system. AMUCT has also urged the VC to take the required steps to start traditional postgraduate course in undergraduate colleges and establish research centres in affiliated colleges to enable undergraduate teachers to guide PhD programmes.

The association also urged the VC to restructure remuneration and DA for exam work, including central valuation. It also focused on the need to appoint a full-time director for the college development council and a full-time student welfare officer at the university level.

Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University T.C. Shivashankara Murthy said that degree colleges affiliated to it cannot admit more students than the intake fixed by the University for Postgraduate Courses.

The colleges could admit 10 per cent more students than the intake for the undergraduate courses after getting permission from the university, he said.

There was no such concession in the case of postgraduate courses. The colleges which violate the intake norms would be answerable to students, he said.

The Vice-Chancellor said although this had been made clear to colleges, earlier some of them had been flouting it and “misguiding” students and parents stating that the State Government had approved the admissions.

The Government’s approval always came with a rider which clearly mentioned that all admissions were subject to the conditions laid down by the university and its statute and guidelines.

Prof. Murthy said the local inquiry committees of the university, which visit colleges every year for a review of infrastructure and other facilities before renewing their affiliations, recommended the intake for each course.

Prof. Murthy said the university would revise the syllabi of BBM and MBA courses to make them more relevant. A committee would be formed in a few days to this effect.
In addition, a workshop would be conducted within a month to seek suggestions from teachers and experts on how to make the courses more relevant. The revised syllabi would be introduced from the academic year 2011-12.

Provisional certificates
The Vice-Chancellor said some students, who had passed out from autonomous colleges, had brought to his notice that the employers were insisting on provisional pass certificates issued by the university and not of their respective colleges. These certificates were issued before students obtained their regular degree certificates on or after convocation. The university could issue provisional certificates in such cases, he said.

Additional grant
Prof. Murthy said the University Grants Commission had sanctioned Rs. 1 crore to the university a few days ago for procuring computers, power inverters and generators and other equipment. Of that, it had released Rs. 90 lakh. The university had now been sanctioned Rs. 11.35 crore by the Government, including some other grants sanctioned earlier. This was in addition to Rs. 11.80 crore sanctioned under the 11 {+t} {+h} Plan, he said.(input from Hindu)