Hyderabad: As per historical records, after almost a century of education being controlled by the Madras University in the princely state of Hyderabad, OU was established by the seventh Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan with a grand vision for the people to satisfy their “intellectual and cultural aspirations.”
However, as the university nears its centenary in 2018, it is in a mess. The university is completely dependent on central government funds as the state government provides just enough money for salaries and pensions. This year, the government has provided about Rs 260 crore while last year it was much less, around Rs 140 crore.
However, the university professors are afraid that they might lose central funding too as OU has not yet got the NAAC grading which enables it to get central funds like from the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology and Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan.
It was the NAAC’s “A” grading that had kept the university's standards alive, apart from its aging senior faculty. With the A grade in its kitty the university could apply for and get the coveted tag of “University with Potential of Excellence”, which enabled OU access to a Rs 50 crore grant from UGC.
The NAAC grade was also useful for students to increase their employability.In the third cycle for reaccreditation, the university did not get the grading. However, as per a senior OU official, the setback is a temporary one.
An example of the downfall of OU due to lack of sufficient faculty is the ECE department, which was given a five-year accreditation in 1998 and was rated better than the ECE department of NIT-Warangal.
As per a senior official, the state government had recently asked the university to give figures of faculty requirement and notifications might be released by the year-end. 54 departments of the varsity need about 550 teaching staff.
Poor funding, lack of faculty, students’ unrest, encroachment of land and a host of other issues have pockmarked the university's grand visions.
