Hyderabad: Other than the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, none of the other state universities in TS has National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation.
Worst still, none of the universities have a permanent vice-chancellor and there has not been any major recruitment drives since over a decade. This has led to the number of teachers in all state universities falling to below 50 per cent of the requirement.
The situation is particularly dismal in new varsities like the Satavahana University where there are about 12 regular teachers and Palamuru University, with 8.
The Kakatiya University has only 220 regular faculty out of a sanctioned strength of 385. Among them, 90 are due for retirement by 2018. Mahatma Gandhi University, Nalgonda has only 36 regular faculty while there are 82 in Telangana University, which is sanctioned 160.
Mr Battu Satyanarayana, chairman of Telangana State Federation of University Teachers' Association (TSFUTA), said, “The state government has been promoting its mission of Bangaru Telangana.
How does it plan to achieve the goal without providing quality education to its youth” An example of the state government's apathy is the batch of B.Pharma students from Satavahana University, which is running its Pharmacy course without approval from the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). There is not much value to the degree certificates for these students as even to become a pharmacist one should have done a diploma course in Pharmacy from a PCI recognised institution. Lack of permanent V-Cs has been a major hurdle for the state universities.
A reason for lack of NAAC grading to universities like KU and OU, which once had been accorded “A” grades, is said to be the lack of interest among the in-charge V-Cs to pursue the matter in a timely manner. Most of them are bureaucrats of various government departments.
Professors from various universities say that the in-charge V-Cs do not even bother coming to the universities for an hour a day. For most decisions, like purchasing any equipment above Rs 10 lakh or for promotion of faculty, the V-C is required for scrutinizing of related documents, conducting interviews and for giving approval.
