The slow descent of State-run varsities into oblivion in Andhra Pradesh

With over 30 State-run universities, Andhra Pradesh stands among the top States in the country that provide a standard of Higher Education.

The latest report of the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE 2020-21) reveals that the State’s Gross Enrolment Ratio is 37.2, much higher than the national average of 27.3, indicating that a good number of students from the State prefer to pursue higher education.

However, most State-run universities in Andhra Pradesh, some established in the pre-independence era, are plagued by issues that pose a massive disadvantage to these educational bodies trying to stay afloat in the competitive field of higher education.

The National Knowledge Commission

The thrusting of Andhra Pradesh into the elite group of top States with the highest number of universities in the country began after Mr. Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC), made a series of recommendations in 2005 to innovate and upgrade the educational system in India.

The NKC was a high-level advisory body reporting directly to India’s then Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Mr. Pitroda had submitted around 300 recommendations, focussing on 27 key areas.

At least one university per district

One such recommendation was the setting up of at least one university in every district across the country.

Adhering to the NKC recommendations, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy initiated the process and a number of public or State-run universities were opened across the undivided Andhra Pradesh.

At present, in the residual state of Andhra Pradesh, there are over 30 universities, which include a few historic institutions such as the nine-decade-old Andhra University (AU) in Visakhapatnam, Sri Venkateswara University (SVU) and Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam (SPMVV) in Tirupati and Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) in Guntur.

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The new universities are divided into conventional and specialised or technological institutions, said the Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technologies (RGUKT) Prof. K.C. Reddy. He also served as the Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE)

To name a few among the new conventional varsities in the State, Krishna University (KU) in Machilipatnam, Vikrama Simhapuri University (VSU) in Nellore, Dr. Ambedkar University in Srikakulam and Adikavi Nannaya University in Rajamahendravaram.

Among the specialised or technological ones are RGUKT and Dr. YSR Horticulture University in West Godavari.

The quality vs quantity debate

However, the mushrooming of the new universities triggered a debate in the State. While one school of thought opposed the move saying, “Instead of opening so many universities, the focus of the NKC or the government should have been on improving and augmenting the existing universities with better infrastructure, developing and creating innovative industry-oriented courses and recruiting good brains as faculty.”

And this has been countered with the argument of geographical accessibility, developing a backward area and reaching out to more students from the economically weaker sections (EWS).

While the debate continues, today there are more than 30 state-run universities spread across Andhra Pradesh.

However, the question at hand is “Are the universities functioning or operating, as desired?”

Today, be it the legacy universities such as AU or SVU or the new ones such as KU or Nannaya, they are plagued with several issues right from staffing to infrastructure, from funds crunch to enrollment of students and from running the Departments to research.

The legacy University

Take the case of Andhra University, the oldest university in the residual State of Andhra Pradesh. It was established in 1926 by the Madras Act of 1926. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the country and has the status of being a legacy university.

Its founding Vice-Chancellor was Prof. C.R. Reddy, and its second V-C was Sarvepalli Radhakrishna, the country’s first Vice-President and the second President of free India.

AU alumni and professors who had once walked through the portals of the university are considered to be stalwarts. Some of the names include Prof. Hiren Mukherjee, Prof. C. Mahadevan, Prof. Ludwiq Wolfe and Prof. Suri Bhagavantam.

Padma Vibhushan and noted statistician Prof C.R. Rao and former RBI Governor Duvvuri Subba Rao had passed out from this university.

AU in a neglected condition

But the present condition of Andhra University is in contrast to its past glory. The budgeted or sanctioned strength for the permanent faculty of AU is around 956, and at present, it is running the show with only 194 permanent faculty.

It is to be noted that in the next two years, about 25 professors are set to attain superannuation, and if recruitment is not done before that, the strength will drop to a meagre 170.

Of the 194 permanent faculty, about 98 are in Andhra University College of Engineering alone, and the university is managing the remaining 70 odd Departments with the remaining 96 staff.

Make-do with staff crunch

Keeping the staff crunch in mind, AU Vice-Chancellor Prof. P.V.G.D. Prasad Reddy has launched a system to induct adjunct professors and now has about 40 such faculty. About 45 retired professors were also absorbed on an honorary basis, and they are offering free service at the university. In addition, about five professors of practice (from the industry) were also hired, and 21 Industry Chairs were initiated during the same period.

Though we have around 100 contract teachers, we had to take up some innovative measures to fill the gap, said Prof. Prasad Reddy.

Not only AU, but every public university in the State, be it older or the newer ones, is facing a severe staff crunch, especially on the teaching side.

According to a senior official from the APSCHE, most of the universities right now are functioning with only about 20 percent of the sanctioned strength.

Sri Venkateswara University, established in 1954, has a sanctioned strength of 576 faculty positions, including 96 professors, 163 associate professors, and 317 assistant professors, and all-inclusive, the university today has only 178 teaching staff.

Similarly, Sri Padmavathi Mahila Viswa Vidyalayam has a sanctioned strength of 137 and currently operates with just 47.

At Adikavi Nannaya University at Rajamahendravaram, the sanctioned strength is 80 but functions with only 26 .

Coming to Krishna University, the sanctioned strength as per university sources is 120 for the 15 odd Departments, and the present strength is around 100, which includes 70 percent made up of contract teachers.

The sanctioned strength of Dr. Ambedkar University is around 160, and the present strength is 80, including contract teachers.

On the look out for quality teachers

It is not that the State Government is not keen on getting the recruitment process completed.

In fact, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had earlier announced the recruitment of about 2,000 faculty members under various categories, such as professors, associate professors and assistant professors.

During the earlier TDP regime, the then CM Nara Chandrababu Naidu had set up a committee, and it was decided that the recruitment would be done by the Andhra Pradesh State Public Service Commission (APPSC) to keep a quality check.

It is the professors who build an institution, and hence the recruitment of quality teachers should be the benchmark.

But this argument did not go well with the contract teachers, who were apprehensive that they would fail the quality test and so went to court.

The case is still pending, and there are other cases filed by various persons on issues such as the rationalisation process, roster issue and reservation factor.

But quoting an adage, ‘Where there is a will – there’s a way’, a senior professor from AU said, “There are court cases, but they can also be bypassed by issuing fresh orders. The authorities concerned need not sit until the judgement is delivered; they can pass fresh orders or go for ad-hoc recruitment, as the need has now gone over the ‘emergency’ level,” he said.

Departments shut down

Many of the Departments that were initially started in the new universities or the existing ones have been closed due to a shortage of faculty and no takers for the courses.

A few Departments in universities such as AU had to be closed or merged into others, by innovatively devising multi-disciplinary courses.

In AU, Departments such as History, Archaeology and Politics had to be closed. Even the famed Philosophy Department, which was started by Dr. Sravepalli Radhakrishnan, was closed last year, only to be reopened this year.

At Krishna University, the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism and Telugu was also closed due to a faculty shortage and because there were no takers for the courses.

Dearth of funds

Coming to funds, many of the new universities that were started in rented colleges or PG centres of the existing universities are yet to have their own fully built-up premises.

The fund crunch in AU, which is not only the oldest but the biggest university in the State, is precarious. The pension component of AU is around ₹302 crore per annum, while the salary bill is around ₹130 crore.

“We get a block grant of around ₹440 crore per annum, which takes care of the pension and the salary component. Internally, we generate around ₹105 crore, which includes fees of around ₹14 crore from affiliated colleges. Many of the AU-affiliated engineering colleges have now been tagged to JNTU-Kakinada, which earns around ₹150 crore from affiliation fees,” said Prof. Prasad Reddy.

But despite the fund crunch, our development projects are on track, thanks to some grants from the Union Government, contributions from our strong alumni and CSR funds, he added.

Still in Telangana

As per the AP Reorganisation Act-2014, the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University are yet to be moved to the residual state of A.P. from Telangana. The Act clearly specifies that they are to be shifted to A.P., said a senior professor who had served as Vice-Chairman of APSCHE.

Though the Telugu university is still based in Telangana, A.P. continues to bear the salaries of the professors from A.P. who are working there, but the benefits are reaped by Telangana. The same is the case with the Open University.

We need a big open university to solve the issues with distance education, opine acadamicians. Keeping these in mind, there is an urgent need to devise a system to get these institutions running, they say.

(Inputs from Rajulapudi Srinivas, K. Srinivsasa Rao, A.D. Rangarajan and T. Appalanaidu)