Academics divided over Univ Bill
BHUBANESWAR: A debate is raging in academic circles regarding the Odisha Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2020. A section of academics strongly believe that the move, first promulgated as an ordinance and now planned to be passed as a Bill in the state assembly, is an assault on the basic principles of academic freedom. Others, however, feel it was much needed to prevent the universities from further deteriorating.
The key changes that the bill intends to bring in the Odisha Universities Act, 1989 are abolition of the senates, centralised recruitment of university teaching and non-teaching staff members by the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) and the State Selection Board, respectively, and greater government say in the selection of vice-chancellors and increased tenure for VCs.
The government has justified these as being long overdue to improve the university functioning and to bring more professionalism. Higher education minister Arun Sahoo said the government wants to do away with senates as these were simply ornamental bodies. The senate is a more than 100-member body comprising heads of departments, some college principals, students, alumni and MLAs meant to review the policies and programmes of the universities and suggest measures for improvement. The senate considers the annual report and annual audit and accounts report.
Similarly, the government intends to have a government nominee in the selection committee of VCs, in place of a syndicate nominee, to make the state an appropriate stakeholder in the selection process. The syndicate is a smaller body led by the VC. It is considered as the real executive body of the university, which appoints faculty members, takes decisions on examinations and the publication of results.
The government is planning to select teachers through the Odisha Public Service Commission and not by the respective universities and the non-teaching staff by the State Selection Board, which is a government body. It will prevent collective wastage of time, efforts and resources of the universities, the minister said. However, many academics have questioned the government logic. In a memorandum to the governor, three former VCs of state-run universities (Binayak Rath, SP Adhikary and SP Rath) and three retired professors (LP Singh, Ajit Mohanty, and PK Mohapatra) questioned the state’s competence to legislate on the matter saying only the Parliament can enact such a law under entry 66 of the Union list of Schedule VII of the Constitution. They said OPSC is not neither legally empowered nor competent to recruit university faculty members. Also, the recruitment of varsity faculty by OPSC violates the UGC Act, they argued.
On the abolition of the senate, Pritish Acharya, a professor of history at Regional Institute of Education, said, “The senate is being abolished on the ground that it was not effective. Instead, the government should make efforts to make the senate more effective. The abolition of the senate will be detrimental to the university system. Instead of giving it more autonomy, the bill will curtail it further.” Pointing out that there will be more government interference in varsity functioning, Radhamadhab Dash, the former VC of Shri Jagannath Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya, Puri, said, “The universities will become more like colleges.”