THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, January 13: Governor-cum- Chancellor of the state universities C P Radhakrishnan has constituted a 17-member Advisory Committee on Reforms in Higher Education Institutions of Jharkhand.
Principal Secretary to Governor Ñitin Madan Kulkarni issued a notification on January 12. Academic Advisor to Governor Dr E Balagurusamy will head the advisory committee.
Know 16 members
Among the other 16 members of the advisory committee are the principal secretary to governor cum chancellor, the principal secretary of higher education and technical department, OSD (university) Raj Bhavan, OSD (Judicial) Raj Bhavan, 6 Vice Chancellors, four directors and two external members.
The advisory committee was initially notified for two years. It is to meet on a periodicity of 3 months or as directed by the advisory committee chairperson. The venue of the meeting would be the universities across the state.
Six VCs on panel
The six VCs on this panel are RU Ranchi, DSPMU Ranchi, Jamshedpur Women’s University, BAU, Ranchi, Jharkhand University of Technology and Jharkhand State Open University Ranchi.
According to the Raj Bhavan notification, the six VCs out of the 12 universities here will be ‘on rotation for a tenure of one year only.
Directors of IIT-ISM, IMM, XLRI, Mecon
Four directors, namely IIT/ISM Dhanbad, IIM Ranchi, Mecon and XLRI Jamshedpur, are the panellists on this advisory committee.
Former academic advisor Anand Bhushan
This advisory committee will see the comeback of Anand Bhushan, former academic advisor to governor cum chancellor, as an external member, along with the head of the Tata Steel Foundation.
Academic audit
The terms of reference for this advisory committee are very down to earth. It speaks for academic audits and the strengthening of students’ feedback mechanisms.
Syllabi in colleges and university departments remains more untouched than even semi-finished. There is no accountability, and teachers need answers about why syllabi are untaught. The academic audits will make teachers accountable and will force the teachers to move into the classroom.
The vested interests badly manipulate the students’ feedback mechanism. Political affiliation comes in the way of the students’ feedback mechanism.
The other terms of reference are ‘Lib and Lab’. Library and Laboratory are the outlandish things in 80 per cent of the colleges here in Jharkhand.
Academic Calendar
The advisory committee is to regulate the academic calendar, which invariably lags either date-wise or month-wise.
An academic calendar is no photo calendar hung in a drawing room. Instead, every university, college, and department official should have it before them to meet the deadlines teachers demand.
As the advisory committee chairperson, Dr E Balagurusamy has a profound reputation for research and innovation. Hence, the focal point from now onwards will be research and innovation, which is typically and conspicuously unheard of in many of the 12 state universities, barring BAU Ranchi, which is conducting significant research and innovation in agriculture and horticulture, etc.
The campus will now reverberate with sports games and cultural events, and the advisory committee will oversee them.
