Autonomous but underfunded, UVCE struggles to stay afloat amidst financial crunch
The Hindu
UVCE alumni have alleged that the State government not providing adequate funds was an attempt to push the premiere institute towards “self-financing model”, which will make technical education unaffordable to the poor and downtrodden communities.
The State government has given autonomous status to the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) and announced it will be developed on the model of Indian Institute of Technology (IITs). However, with no adequate funding from the State government, UVCE is struggling to stay afloat. UVCE Teachers Association and a group of illustrious alumni of the prestigious institute have now been lobbying hard for adequate funding for the institute.
The alumni have alleged that the State government not providing adequate funds was an attempt to push the premiere institute towards “self-financing model”, which will make technical education unaffordable to the poor and downtrodden communities.
While the State government made UVCE, affiliated to Bangalore University from 1964, autonomous in March 2022, the financial and administrative powers continued to rest with the University. The “status-quo” arrangement will end this fiscal year. However, UVCE Teachers Association has written to Bangalore University to continue the arrangement for another year, as the State government hasn’t given the institute adequate funding.
The capital and operational expenditure of the UVCE is around ₹47.69 crore per annum. However, the government has announced only ₹22.4 crore in the 2023-24 annual budget, which is enough for only regular faculty’s salary and leaves a deficit of ₹25.29 crore. The university needs an additional ₹6.5 crore for guest faculty remuneration, ₹3 crore for outsourced employees’ remuneration, ₹13.5 crore operational expenditure, ₹1 crore for National Pension Scheme (NPS) contribution and ₹1.5 crore for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) Research Scholars scholarship.
UVCE Teacher’s Association has written to the State government seeking additional grants, to no avail yet. “Only announcing that UVCE will be developed on the lines of IIT is not enough, the government needs to put its money where its mouth is and invest in the college. If a prestigious institution like UVCE is converted into a self-financed institution, only those with money will be able to study there. We will fight this along with students, teachers and parents,” said Prof. M.N. Srihari, a distinguished alum of the institution.
However, B. Muthuraman, Chairman of Governing Council, UVCE, said that the State government had promised to provide funds for the development of UVCE. “The government has promised us to provide interim relief, after which we will discuss with them on the long term requirements of UVCE,” he said.
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