For four years and three months, the Manipur government has been running the Dhanamanjuri University (DMU) like a government college, and that too without a faculty of its own while utilising the services of the government college teachers posted at the five premier colleges of the state. The only saving grace is a Vice-Chancellor who was appointed last year.
We had raised the question of non-appointment of a VC and faculty members of the University in the past. DM University came into existence in April 2018 under The Dhanamanjuri University Act, 2017. The University was established under the National Scheme of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) as fulfilment of one of its primary components i.e., to convert colleges to cluster Universities.
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The University is built up of the three Dhanamanjuri Colleges namely DM College of Science, DM College of Arts, DM College of Commerce along with GP Women’s College and LMS Law College. Four years and three months have gone by and the university has already started producing graduates and post graduates besides a number of M Phil, Ph D, NET and JRF scholars, while the fate of the government teachers utilised by the University hangs in balance.
DM University has been running without a faculty of its own, but with borrowed teachers from the Department of Higher Education and it is yet to be fully recognised by University Grants Commission (UGC) as a full-fledged university.
In 2020 on December 19, the university authorities came up with a notification for appointment of 88 Assistant Professors spread across 22 disciplines or subjects. We thought, at last DM University is going to have a faculty of its own now.
Then, complications came up regarding the fate of the students who were taught and examined by the borrowed teachers who had come out with degrees from the state university. For a university which began in 2018, a regular faculty is still yet to be recruited.
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No option was given to the government teachers in 2018 then whether they would like to remain with the newly converted University or revert to other government colleges, when the University was first notified. The option was given only recently rather crudely without even acknowledging the services rendered by them in the last four years and three months.
The university authorities or for that matter the state government should have made clear on the status of the ‘borrowed’ teachers vis-à-vis DM University before any new recruitment in faculty positions is made. Now, the All Manipur Students Union (AMSU) has come into the picture.
While demanding a full-fledged university status for DMU, it is alleged that the university is unable to acquire the 12(B) status of the UGC, and it is not receiving any funds from the UGC, thereby causing loopholes to exist in the functioning of the varsity.
The organisation had raised the issue with the state Education Minister in May this year, but still he is yet to take up any action into the matter. Whether he has been fully briefed on the matter or not, as an educated person himself it is required of him to apply his mind and seek to thrash out the issue before a full scale agitation comes up. And mind you, teachers need to be asked nicely as to their options as they are principally engaged in moulding and nurturing the future generation.
- EDITORIAL
