K'taka govt plans uniform policy for varsity recruitment

The state government is mulling over bringing about a uniform procedure for the recruitment of lecturers / professors in all the Universities in the state. Minister for higher education R V Deshpande said the move is to limit the discretion of the interview committee members and allow the merit to prevail. As of now, different varsities in the state have formed their own method of recruitment and the marks meant for viva voce differ from different universities, the minister said during an interaction with media at Karnatak University in Dharwad on Tuesday.

He also said this had led to discrimination by the interview committee members and complaints of injustice being meted out to meritorious candidates were pouring in.

"At a time when the deterioration in quality of education in our universities is a matter of serious concern, a system of recruitment that ensures transparency and allows merit to prevail without compromising on the policy of reservation is necessary. The government will soon bring out guidelines for recruitment" Deshpande explained. He also said that he had ordered the recruitment process at Rani Channamma University to be stopped not because there were complaints of irregularities but because the government wanted to issue new guidelines.

"It is only postponement of recruitment process till new guidelines are issued," he asserted. While admitting that the government would look into complaints of irregularities in the University, the minister warned those filing false complaints will also face action. Deshpande informed that he was in favour of according autonomy to more and more degree colleges in a bid to enhance the quality of education. The government has already allocated Rs 5 crore to create a corpus fund for carrying out innovation activities at Vishwesharaya Technological university and such incentives would be provided to other varsities and colleges also, he added.

The minister said the government had sent proposal for setting up Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at Dharwad and the Karnatak University had agreed to provide 50 acres of land for IIIT. The proposal is under active consideration of the Centre and IIIT would be a reality in the next 2-3 years, he asserted.

On complaints of money playing a role in appointment of vice-chancellors to the universities, Deshpande said the government would induct men of stature and integrity as its nominee in the search committee that shortlists the names for the post of vice chancellors.

The minister said that the new government had found that the appointment of government nominees to the syndicates of various universities had not been made according to the Karnatak State Universities Act 2000 and hence had decided to cancel all such nominations in all the universities.