Lessons on how to loot a university and other such things

Twenty years ago when I joined the teaching profession as a Lecturer at the Osmania University, I thought education was a sacred cow, one that could not be violated.  I knew full well that the University was not in the best of shapes academically speaking.  In fact, if one were to look at the history of the University it is abundantly clear that it was never too strong in the social sciences area with hardly any scholarship among the teachers who taught the various disciplines of the social science faculty.  But even this knowing did not help when I actually joined the University and found people whose scholarship was so pathetic that it was gob smacking.  I do not think that professors in the University are capable of teaching middle school lessons properly.  Most of them are only just literate, capable of signing and small things like that.  To my utter dismay I have now found out that even the science faculty is no better.  The amazing thing is that the University teachers are firmly divided on class lines at one level but are united by the fact that irrespective of being upper caste or lower caste, all are singularly incapable of any teaching, writing or research.  It is for this reason that classes are hardly ever held and students who do not know anything are passed in flying colours.  The reasons behind this pathetic teaching staff I have already written in other posts of the blog where I have said that people were chosen not on the basis of academic ability but on the basis of other considerations and since I have already written about them, I shall not repeat them here.

I must say that the twenty years in the University have been most exciting.  Every time I think things cannot get any worse, I find that something new happens and demonstrates that there are still rungs that the University can go down to.  The Vice-Chancellors of the University have been getting worse successively and corruption is rampant in the University in various forms.  I have heard of rumours claiming that 1 crore of rupees is the fee to become a Vice-Chancellor apart from the now mandatory political connections.  However what is most surprising is how corrupt the UGC is.  Even now there are relics who are above the age of 80 years who are involved in the various committees of the UGC and they have been doling out monies and Centres for Advanced Studies to departments in the University where there is not even adequate number of teachers leave alone good ones and good researchers.  Old connections, socializing, booze binges in the evenings whenever "academic" relics from all over the country meet decide on who gets what.  I would like to say that this malady is present in all universities in this country without exception.

Some of the good teachers and researchers of social sciences who are now found only in Delhi or Calcutta have such swollen heads that they find it difficult to stand upright.  They are so consumed with themselves that they have no time for anyone or anything else.  These people too have learnt the art of making connections and using intimidation to get projects from the UGC.  What they do benefits them immensely and peripherally benefits the academic community at large if they bring out a book, otherwise their contribution too is zero and that is the case in a majority of cases.  Once the money reaches the universities, (thanks only to the largess of the benefactors at the UGC who themselves have educational institutions which benefit from their generosity), it is then a question of how to distribute that money without having to make the person accountable for it.  Usually projects are taken up and nothing done about it and if there is insistence on settlements of accounts and submission of reports, things are concocted it and submitted.  If equipment such as PCs, printers and scanners have to be surrendered post the project completion, the faculty members find something which is condemned and give it off to the university. The monies earmarked for books and equipment are used for personal gain.  Now there is a new way of getting money.  If a foreign research scholar joins the University his fees is split up and a big percentage of that is being given to the scholar's supervisor as his/her "share".  The supervisor's "share" is bigger than the department's share.  This in universities where funds are severely lacking and developmental activity stalled.  I have already said too much and I could get into trouble just like that whistle blower professor at the IIT Kharagpur.