Anantapur: Sri Krishnadevaraya University wallows in govt apathy, faculty crunch

Anantapur: The four-decades-old Sri Krishnadevaraya University (SKU) which started off with more than 235 faculty in 1981 and reached pinnacle of glory, is today languishing in intellectual poverty.

The university is running with a skeleton staff of 40 professors. Although there are 50 professors, more than 10 professors among them are holding additional posts and do not teach. So, hardly 40 professors are engaged in teaching about 2,000 students studying in 20 academic departments. Observers say that except for a small percentage of serious students pursuing their academic goals, a sizable section of students who lack academic vision and goals are only whiling away time on the campus not attending classes and enjoying academic privileges and freebies.

Sources on the campus express dismay at the steep decline in academic and moral values among students and staff. They talk of a nexus between the senior-most students who had been living on the campus for more than 10 years pursuing one course after the other just to stay put on the campus and the faculty not interested in teaching but passing away time in holding additional posts and politicking.

The state government which constituted a high power committee to study conditions in universities and recommend academic faculty strength submitted a report that SKU should have a minimum teaching strength of 190. The precarious academic conditions are reflected in the state of affairs in 35 odd departments. Department of Commerce which should have 10 teaching staff has just two professors, Economic department which should have 14 professors has only three.

Similarly, the ratio between the required faculty strength and the existing strength in Chemistry department 16:3, Physics 9:2, Biotechnology 4:2, Rural Development 8:1, Micro-biology 6:1, Bio-chemistry 6:0, Mathematics 16:2, Telugu 11:3, English 9:1, MPD (sports) has no faculty, Adult Education 4:1, MLAC 5:1, Botany 6:3, Zoology 6:2, Sericulture 6:1MBA 14:4 and B.Ed with 400 students has no teachers.

To top it all, the university does not have a full-fledged vice-chancellor for the past 4 years. Every appointee was temporary in nature. The present vice-chancellor Ramachander is an IAS officer whose heart is not in the university. He is only an occasional visitor or an inspector. The state government views the post of VC as a political one and therefore takes time to appoint "politically suitable" people.

Surprisingly, tens of student unions affiliated to political parties operate on the campus but these unions had never thought of coming together to agitate for improvement in academic standards on the campus and on the poor faculty position which is taking a toll on academic excellence.