Hyderabad, February 15: That the newly-established universities in the State are facing trouble in their endeavour to have good facilities due to financial crunch is only well known. But what’s new about the hardship faced by the AP State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) in monitoring these higher institutes of learning is that there is severe data crunch about the infrastructure and number of enrolled and continuing students.
Following Governor and Chancellor ESL Narasimham’s dictum at the recent vice-chancellors’ conference to submit quarterly reports for better functioning of the same, the APSCHE officials have intimated the respective VCs to send a report on the state of affairs in their universities.
“Except one university, the other new universities in the State don’t have even the mechanism to compile the data for academic audit purposes. It would be difficult for these universities to sustain if they don’t follow the measures and compile the data especially in the wake of some of the deemed university managements questioning the quality of the higher education in government universities,’’ revealed an APSCHE official.
Fourteen universities were established in the State in the last three years in order to achieve the government’s vision of having one university in every district of the State.
Even APSCHE Chairman KC Reddy admitted that as of now there was no proper measure to compile the higher education data in these universities. “From our side, we have been seeking the required data about the academic affairs and infrastructure on a timely basis, which fell on deaf ears.
After the VCs conference with Governor, when we enquired for the same, some of the VCs said that they did not h ave the data readily available with them,’’ he said for the record, and added that they were framing a common proforma for all the universities and would be sending them across this week.
Reddy also hinted that once the council received the information, it would be able to guide the universities to come with an academic calendar on the lines of the suggestions given by the Chancellor.
Asked if there was lack of communication between the council and the universities, he said the universities needed time to establish themselves.
He reiterated that the council would take all appropriate measures to ensure that quarterly reports were submitted duly to the governor without fail.
–Agencies