KALABURAGI : Gulbarga University offers an object lesson in how not to run a higher educational institution. The university does not have a vice-chancellor. It plods along with only two professors and four associate professors.
Once a prestigious learning centre in Kalyana-Karnataka, it has been reduced to a university of guest faculty. More than 70 per cent of the sanctioned posts have remained vacant. The university’s admissions have declined over the years, with only 3,000 students studying across its 80 colleges at present. Consider this — in 2022-23, over 2,000 students took admission and the numbers fell to a mere 800 in 2023-24.
The declining number of students’ intake captures the administrative morass the university finds itself in.
The university was set up on September 10, 1980, with the bifurcation of Karnataka University. Earlier, it functioned as the Postgraduate Centre of Karnataka University from 1970 to 1980.
Over the years, as the state government set up new universities, Gulbarga University lost its stature as Raichur University (2021) and Bidar University (2023) came into existence.
Raichur University has jurisdiction over colleges in Raichur and Yadgir districts, while Gulbarga University’s authority is over colleges only in Kalaburagi district. With bifurcations and dwindling number of colleges, revenues of Gulbarga University have plummeted.
Permanent faculty shortage affects research, says prof
Dayanand Agsar, former vice-chancellor, Gulbarga University, told TNIE that research activities of students would suffer in the absence of permanent teaching staff as guest lecturers are, most often, not up to the task. “Efforts have been on for over a decade to fill up vacant teaching and non-teaching staff posts. After the amendment to Article 371 (J), universities in Kalyana-Karnataka have to re-adjust the reservation for recruitment. The preparation of documents itself took some time and successive VCs of the university submitted repeated requests to the government to fill the vacant posts. There are guest lecturers, but they lack accountability.”