WHAT distinguishes Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar, from others is that it has made the least contribution to unemployment. By keeping off mainstream arts subjects and stressing on job-oriented courses in engineering, science and management, GJU has done tremendous social good. Permanent teachers are, by and large, young, bright and apolitical. Appointments are not caste-based, and that is a landmark in Haryana. Students are respectful and academically inclined. Admissions are transparent and results are on time. Another feat: girls face no sexual harassment. There are no unions and elections.
There is much on the negative side, however. There are allegations of financial bungling and indiscriminate promotions of the supporting staff. In Haryana bureaucratic interference is an accepted fact of academic life and VCs do not protest at the dilution of university autonomy due to the state government aid; it is Rs 4 crore for GJU. There is an outflow of talented teachers. The reason: choking work environment.
Instead of evolving their own rules and regulations to suit the requirements and develop efficient management practices to cut delays, this young university’s administrators look up to MDU and KU, hardly models of excellence, for guidance. The management blundered by importing middle-level non-teaching staff from other universities. They know how to scuttle or delay unfavourable decisions and arm-twist teachers into submission.
GJU’s apparent academic peace can be shattered any time, as it did on September 10 when students went on strike to demand supplementary examinations of compartment candidates in October. The teachers’ association opposes supplementary examinations. But the Vice-Chancellor, Dr A.R.Chauhan, who relinquished office on September 11, did not want to displease the students on the eve of his retirement. The students had their way.
The university’s response system is resented. Take the strike. The university authorities got the agitating students video-filmed and photographed, obviously for reprisals, if need be, and, worse, called in the police. A patient hearing and firm action in the best interest of the university could have averted the strike. But the situation was allowed to be on the boil and a solution was found only after the students walked out of their classrooms. If tomorrow the university becomes a hotbed of student or teacher politics, blame it on bad management.
Set up in 1995 by the then Chief Minister, Mr Bhajan Lal, the university is named after Guru Jambeshwar, a widely respected 15th century environmentalist saint of the Bishnois. The next Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, tried to stunt its growth due to political rivalry. He cut short state funding. The UGC affiliation and the Chautala government’s bailout, however, have kept the university going.
Under Dr Chauhan, GJU earned A grade from NAAC, added courses like computer science, electronics, biomedical sciences, physiotherapy and M. Pharma apart from having an institute of engineering and technology. Three departments — management, environment and mass communication — have got a Rs 1.5 crore UGC grant each under its special assistance programme (SAP).
The UGC and Ministry of Human Resource Development guidelines say that to set up a university, at least Rs 20 crore should be made available annually for 10 years. GJU has got only Rs 29 crore in eight years. Ch Devi Lal University, on the other hand, says Dr Narsi Ram, President of the GJU Teachers Association, has been given Rs 45 crore. We do not mind that, but a similar grant should also be given to GJU.”
Lack of funds, and some misutilisation, have affected the university functioning. A teachers’ union leader said the university had a Rs 20-crore fixed deposit to provide it financial stability, but the principal amount is being spent now. The VC expressed ignorance of this. When the university authorities bought computers worth about Rs 55 lakh, 10 of these got burnt in two days. Substandard stuff was purchased on commission, alleged teachers. An Assistant Registrar was accused of trying to sell computer parts through his favourite supplier. He tore an official document in the presence of two teachers to remove proof of his involvement. Yet he was promoted.
The VC’s hurried decision, a day before his retirement, to relieve the Director of Distance Education has taken the university staff by surprise and lent weight to the allegation of financial bungling in the department. The Director, a VC appointee and favourite, had still one year’s service left. His financial dealings were not through the usual channel, but cleared direct by the VC, and therefore questioned by many.
For distance education there are 125 study centres in the country but many are run in one or two rooms and lack qualified teachers and infrastructure. The centre owners mint money, disgracing the name of GJU. The university is not in a position to control such centres as the VC had stopped taking the Rs 1 lakh security deposit from each centre. The university used to earn a hefty interest on the amount thus collected. Dr Chauhan, however, claims that the university income has actually gone up as he had increased the charges from the study centres, apart from taking a Rs 1 lakh bank guarantee from each centre.
Another questionable decision is the waving of the Rs 5-lakh penalty imposed on a building contractor. Dr Chauhan said the penalty was on account of delay in the completion of a university building, not due to poor construction work. The file to waive the penalty was moved before he took over but it got cleared during his term.
The 372-acre campus is a picture of neglect with a wild growth of “kikar”, “aak” and congress grass. But fund or staff shortage cannot be blamed for the insanitary conditions of departments and haphazard parking of vehicles. Hostels suffer from water shortage. Barring the department heads, teachers do not have even an inter-departmental telephone facility, leave alone an Internet connectivity. Two or three teachers are herded in one room.
In total the university today has 2,200 students, 353 non-teachers and 91 teachers. There are 146 sanctioned posts of regular teacher. The VC had a fondness for retired hands. A large battalion of temporary teachers is deployed on the campus. Some are simply postgraduates and have not cleared even the NET or SET.
The shortage of teachers is acutely felt. There should be at least 20 regular lecturers in the Printing and Technology Department according to the UGC requirements. However, there are only two teachers. The rest are on contract. The engineering college on the campus is run by those on contract. The financial crunch, the state government ban and ad hoc arrangements have barred the university from raising a team of dedicated, research-oriented teachers.
Quite a few teachers feel the university has been put into the “reverse gear”. Till last session, GJU offered applied mathematics, industrial chemistry and advanced physics to produce scientists and technologists. This year the university has “simplified” these courses. The students from these departments will not now go beyond teaching, defeating the purpose of technical education.
Almost 80 per cent of the teachers have projects and they appreciate Dr Chauhan’s help. That there is no provision for enough space and timely supply of equipment for projects is another matter. The Food Technology Department head, Dr B.S.Khatkar, alone has two projects worth Rs1 crore. Prof C.P. Kaushik, Chairperson of the Environmental Science and Engineering Department, has carried out a detailed study on the presence of pesticides in milk in Haryana.
There are two cases of Ph.D. which have become controversial, casting a shadow on the research practices in the university. In one case a former VC’s niece was given an extension after the expiry of the five-year period though she had not fulfilled the preliminary requirements under the rules. No one knows who her guide is. An applied psychology student was allowed to do Ph.D. even though she had 51 per cent marks in her MA. Her marks in M.Ed were counted despite objections from some quarters. She was given a new guide without the consent of the previous guide, who dubbed it a “criminal act in academics”.
In a letter to the VC the previous guide, Dr Anu Singh Lather, wrote: “I am surprised to know that the same Ph.D. research under the same title by the same candidate is being supervised by another supervisor, a man of commerce who has no locus standi to guide a Ph.D. in the area of criminal psychology...it is disgusting and insulting for me as a teacher and as a supervisor to see such an unethical behaviour of another teacher who is a senior faculty (member) of this university.” The VC, defending both cases as being under the rules, blamed teachers’ rivalry for the controversy.
Students come from a conservative background, but boys and girls soon shed inhibitions and work together in a healthy way. No one complains of sexual harassment. Their English and personality need improvement. This is what M.Sc (Physics) students, wrote in a poster on September 5: “People says God is one/We will say Gods are two/One is in heaven/While on earth is you”. Since they are being prepared to work in a competitive national/international corporate culture, the university has made arrangements for polishing them off.
“The students and teachers are the two key areas of a university, not the supporting staff”, says Mr Sanjeev Kumar, Secretary of the teachers association. A number of teachers, requesting anonymity, complained about the unhealthy dominance of DRs and ARs (Deputy Registrars and Assistant Registrars) on the university functioning resulting in the denial of timely promotions to teachers and delay in the purchase of equipment for research projects.
Nowhere else teachers wanting to attend international conferences and workshops are forced to sign a bond before going abroad. “We are discouraged from attending such conferences on the ground that teaching work would suffer. Doesn’t the teaching work suffer when we are sent on exam duty for distance education?” asks one teacher. “The ARs and DRs have got two promotions in eight years, but a lecturer is promoted reader after eight years”, adds another. They are all “kalakaars” who have imposed a “ghuggi culture” (multilateral signing of documents), remarks a long-time observer of the university affairs.
The outcome of the activities of the “academic mafia” is that quite a number of talented teachers have quit the university. In the mathematics department, for instance, six of the eight teachers have left. Though the university had appointed 103 lecturers, 17 of them have resigned. The university advertised for nine posts of lecturer in the computer science department three times but has not found suitable applicants.
However, the Registrar, Mr D.K.Kasnia, claims the university functions according to the Act and the rules in practice everywhere. None of the teachers’ promotion is pending. He, as also the VC, defends the prevalent work system.
Now as the search committee is meeting on September 18 to finalise a panel for the next VC of GJU, it is hoped the Chancellor/state government will select a VC who can provide visionary leadership to bring GJU back on the growth track, usher in a healthy work and study culture and save it from the clutches of vested interests.
for more discussion join
jateducation@yahoogroups.com
Dharmpal
There is much on the negative side, however. There are allegations of financial bungling and indiscriminate promotions of the supporting staff. In Haryana bureaucratic interference is an accepted fact of academic life and VCs do not protest at the dilution of university autonomy due to the state government aid; it is Rs 4 crore for GJU. There is an outflow of talented teachers. The reason: choking work environment.
Instead of evolving their own rules and regulations to suit the requirements and develop efficient management practices to cut delays, this young university’s administrators look up to MDU and KU, hardly models of excellence, for guidance. The management blundered by importing middle-level non-teaching staff from other universities. They know how to scuttle or delay unfavourable decisions and arm-twist teachers into submission.
GJU’s apparent academic peace can be shattered any time, as it did on September 10 when students went on strike to demand supplementary examinations of compartment candidates in October. The teachers’ association opposes supplementary examinations. But the Vice-Chancellor, Dr A.R.Chauhan, who relinquished office on September 11, did not want to displease the students on the eve of his retirement. The students had their way.
The university’s response system is resented. Take the strike. The university authorities got the agitating students video-filmed and photographed, obviously for reprisals, if need be, and, worse, called in the police. A patient hearing and firm action in the best interest of the university could have averted the strike. But the situation was allowed to be on the boil and a solution was found only after the students walked out of their classrooms. If tomorrow the university becomes a hotbed of student or teacher politics, blame it on bad management.
Set up in 1995 by the then Chief Minister, Mr Bhajan Lal, the university is named after Guru Jambeshwar, a widely respected 15th century environmentalist saint of the Bishnois. The next Chief Minister, Mr Bansi Lal, tried to stunt its growth due to political rivalry. He cut short state funding. The UGC affiliation and the Chautala government’s bailout, however, have kept the university going.
Under Dr Chauhan, GJU earned A grade from NAAC, added courses like computer science, electronics, biomedical sciences, physiotherapy and M. Pharma apart from having an institute of engineering and technology. Three departments — management, environment and mass communication — have got a Rs 1.5 crore UGC grant each under its special assistance programme (SAP).
The UGC and Ministry of Human Resource Development guidelines say that to set up a university, at least Rs 20 crore should be made available annually for 10 years. GJU has got only Rs 29 crore in eight years. Ch Devi Lal University, on the other hand, says Dr Narsi Ram, President of the GJU Teachers Association, has been given Rs 45 crore. We do not mind that, but a similar grant should also be given to GJU.”
Lack of funds, and some misutilisation, have affected the university functioning. A teachers’ union leader said the university had a Rs 20-crore fixed deposit to provide it financial stability, but the principal amount is being spent now. The VC expressed ignorance of this. When the university authorities bought computers worth about Rs 55 lakh, 10 of these got burnt in two days. Substandard stuff was purchased on commission, alleged teachers. An Assistant Registrar was accused of trying to sell computer parts through his favourite supplier. He tore an official document in the presence of two teachers to remove proof of his involvement. Yet he was promoted.
The VC’s hurried decision, a day before his retirement, to relieve the Director of Distance Education has taken the university staff by surprise and lent weight to the allegation of financial bungling in the department. The Director, a VC appointee and favourite, had still one year’s service left. His financial dealings were not through the usual channel, but cleared direct by the VC, and therefore questioned by many.
For distance education there are 125 study centres in the country but many are run in one or two rooms and lack qualified teachers and infrastructure. The centre owners mint money, disgracing the name of GJU. The university is not in a position to control such centres as the VC had stopped taking the Rs 1 lakh security deposit from each centre. The university used to earn a hefty interest on the amount thus collected. Dr Chauhan, however, claims that the university income has actually gone up as he had increased the charges from the study centres, apart from taking a Rs 1 lakh bank guarantee from each centre.
Another questionable decision is the waving of the Rs 5-lakh penalty imposed on a building contractor. Dr Chauhan said the penalty was on account of delay in the completion of a university building, not due to poor construction work. The file to waive the penalty was moved before he took over but it got cleared during his term.
The 372-acre campus is a picture of neglect with a wild growth of “kikar”, “aak” and congress grass. But fund or staff shortage cannot be blamed for the insanitary conditions of departments and haphazard parking of vehicles. Hostels suffer from water shortage. Barring the department heads, teachers do not have even an inter-departmental telephone facility, leave alone an Internet connectivity. Two or three teachers are herded in one room.
In total the university today has 2,200 students, 353 non-teachers and 91 teachers. There are 146 sanctioned posts of regular teacher. The VC had a fondness for retired hands. A large battalion of temporary teachers is deployed on the campus. Some are simply postgraduates and have not cleared even the NET or SET.
The shortage of teachers is acutely felt. There should be at least 20 regular lecturers in the Printing and Technology Department according to the UGC requirements. However, there are only two teachers. The rest are on contract. The engineering college on the campus is run by those on contract. The financial crunch, the state government ban and ad hoc arrangements have barred the university from raising a team of dedicated, research-oriented teachers.
Quite a few teachers feel the university has been put into the “reverse gear”. Till last session, GJU offered applied mathematics, industrial chemistry and advanced physics to produce scientists and technologists. This year the university has “simplified” these courses. The students from these departments will not now go beyond teaching, defeating the purpose of technical education.
Almost 80 per cent of the teachers have projects and they appreciate Dr Chauhan’s help. That there is no provision for enough space and timely supply of equipment for projects is another matter. The Food Technology Department head, Dr B.S.Khatkar, alone has two projects worth Rs1 crore. Prof C.P. Kaushik, Chairperson of the Environmental Science and Engineering Department, has carried out a detailed study on the presence of pesticides in milk in Haryana.
There are two cases of Ph.D. which have become controversial, casting a shadow on the research practices in the university. In one case a former VC’s niece was given an extension after the expiry of the five-year period though she had not fulfilled the preliminary requirements under the rules. No one knows who her guide is. An applied psychology student was allowed to do Ph.D. even though she had 51 per cent marks in her MA. Her marks in M.Ed were counted despite objections from some quarters. She was given a new guide without the consent of the previous guide, who dubbed it a “criminal act in academics”.
In a letter to the VC the previous guide, Dr Anu Singh Lather, wrote: “I am surprised to know that the same Ph.D. research under the same title by the same candidate is being supervised by another supervisor, a man of commerce who has no locus standi to guide a Ph.D. in the area of criminal psychology...it is disgusting and insulting for me as a teacher and as a supervisor to see such an unethical behaviour of another teacher who is a senior faculty (member) of this university.” The VC, defending both cases as being under the rules, blamed teachers’ rivalry for the controversy.
Students come from a conservative background, but boys and girls soon shed inhibitions and work together in a healthy way. No one complains of sexual harassment. Their English and personality need improvement. This is what M.Sc (Physics) students, wrote in a poster on September 5: “People says God is one/We will say Gods are two/One is in heaven/While on earth is you”. Since they are being prepared to work in a competitive national/international corporate culture, the university has made arrangements for polishing them off.
“The students and teachers are the two key areas of a university, not the supporting staff”, says Mr Sanjeev Kumar, Secretary of the teachers association. A number of teachers, requesting anonymity, complained about the unhealthy dominance of DRs and ARs (Deputy Registrars and Assistant Registrars) on the university functioning resulting in the denial of timely promotions to teachers and delay in the purchase of equipment for research projects.
Nowhere else teachers wanting to attend international conferences and workshops are forced to sign a bond before going abroad. “We are discouraged from attending such conferences on the ground that teaching work would suffer. Doesn’t the teaching work suffer when we are sent on exam duty for distance education?” asks one teacher. “The ARs and DRs have got two promotions in eight years, but a lecturer is promoted reader after eight years”, adds another. They are all “kalakaars” who have imposed a “ghuggi culture” (multilateral signing of documents), remarks a long-time observer of the university affairs.
The outcome of the activities of the “academic mafia” is that quite a number of talented teachers have quit the university. In the mathematics department, for instance, six of the eight teachers have left. Though the university had appointed 103 lecturers, 17 of them have resigned. The university advertised for nine posts of lecturer in the computer science department three times but has not found suitable applicants.
However, the Registrar, Mr D.K.Kasnia, claims the university functions according to the Act and the rules in practice everywhere. None of the teachers’ promotion is pending. He, as also the VC, defends the prevalent work system.
Now as the search committee is meeting on September 18 to finalise a panel for the next VC of GJU, it is hoped the Chancellor/state government will select a VC who can provide visionary leadership to bring GJU back on the growth track, usher in a healthy work and study culture and save it from the clutches of vested interests.
for more discussion join
jateducation@yahoogroups.com
Dharmpal