Bharathiar University allegedly has approved new courses to 17 of its affiliated Arts and Science colleges to run courses from this academic year without following the norms.
The university will be conducting its 83rd ordinary senate meeting at the campus on Friday, July 29, and it has sent a final agenda copy for the meeting to senate members. In the agenda copy collected by TNIE, former senate member P Thiunavakarasu asked a question: How many colleges received the applications for starting new courses for the 2022-2023 academic year from Bharathiar University violating norms with the penalty? Further, he asked for the list of college names.
In reply, the university said that it has received applications from 25 colleges for starting new courses such as BSc Beauty Wellness, BBA Aviation Management, BSc Data Science and so on. Further, it has mentioned the received date of the applications as well.
Association of University Teachers State President P Thirunavukkarasu who was a former senate member, told TNIE, "University act and statues clearly say that if a college wants to start new courses in the next academic year, the management should get approval from the university in the present academic year. As per duration, the college should apply by October and with the penalty by 2022 in the current academic year. Only then the college can run the new courses in the college after making all arrangements such as appointing the teaching staff, setting up the lab, and so on."
"But the University approved new courses to 25 colleges after collecting penalty. On this, the university has approved new courses for 17 colleges which applied in June 2022 to run the courses. University favoured these familiar private colleges violating the university norms with the help of the higher education secretary. Because, despite this issue being brought to the secretary's attention, he has failed to stop the violation," he alleged.
Further, Thirunavukkarasu urged that the new courses which were approved by the university recently, to be withdrawn from the colleges due to violations.
Joint Action Council of College Teachers Convener M Nagarajan told TNIE, "Private college managements try to start the new courses in the colleges based on course trend. Only then they can increase the student's strength with the commercial intention. If the university gives approval to new courses immediately, there will be a lack of teaching staff, labs, classrooms and other amenities in the college. It would affect education for students who come with a lot of dreams. So, the higher education minister needs to stop these violations of practices in the university."
When asked about it, Bharathiar University Vice-Chancellor P Kaliraj told TNIE, "Due to the pandemic, it took some time in giving approval to the new courses. Besides, some colleges gave representations to the higher education department to give approval for new courses to run from this academic year. Considering this, the university gave approval and there is no violation here."
Further, the VC said that the university has decided to extend the period to December instead of October to receive the application for starting new courses and this decision will take on the senate meeting.
Repeated attempts to reach Higher Education Secretary D Karthikeyan were made but he was not available for comments.
