The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) students on Monday went around the Chennamma circle in Hubballi with a donation box begging, after the Congress government recently hinted at shutting down nine new state universities citing a fund crunch.
The students demanded to know why the state government was "playing" with the lives of students by shutting down varsities instead of advancing higher education in the state.
Last week, a cabinet subcommittee headed by Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, to study the performance and financial health of the 10 new universities set up by the previous BJP government (in March 2023), had reportedly decided to shut down nine varsities (except Bidar University) as they were found to be financially “non-viable”.
The BJP slammed the ruling Congress and accused it of “political vendetta” as the new varsities were set up by the Bommai government under the “One district, One University” concept that aligned with the National Education Policy 2020, and the Union government’s aim to improve the gross enrollment ratio (GER) in higher education from the current 28 % to 50 % by 2035.
Besides, the creation of the Maharani Cluster University and Nrupathunga University, the Bommai government created eight new universities at Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Kodagu, Haveri, Koppal, Bagalkot, and Bidar as well as integrated universities of Mandya and Raichur, by amending the Karnataka State Universities (Amendment) Act 2022.
Bidar University has 140 affiliated colleges, Bagalkot-71, Koppal-45, Haveri-40, Hassan-36, Kodagu-34 and Chamarajanagar-18. All first-grade colleges in the district come under Mandya University.
“We will place the recommendations of the subcommittee before the cabinet which will take a call on whether to shut down the universities, merge them (with parent varsities) or continue them,” said Shivakumar, adding that the previous BJP government had neither allotted any land or grants to run the varsities.
“Also, the enrollment at Chamrajnagar and Mandya have fallen as students prefer to study in Mysore University,” he added.
Citing an internal report, Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar said that the budget to run the nine universities for the first five years would be Rs 347 crore. Also, the new universities were impacting the quality of the old ones.
Former chief minister and Haveri MP Basavaraj Bommai opposed the state government’s decision stating that it would affect the students from deprived communities more.
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“Our BJP government has started these varsities to cater to the educational needs of the backward districts and to benefit SC/ ST and Backward classes students and girl students. But the Congress government did not release a single rupee to these universities in the last two years,” rued Bommai.
Former higher education minister and BJP MLA C.N. Ashwathnarayan said the Congress was against these new universities and was only making political statements. “What do they mean by saying the universities are not viable? It is not a business centre. The universities are an investment to secure the future of our students. The government just needs to fill up the existing posts and it will not incur any additional cost. The Congress government has become bankrupt and is looking for an excuse to shut the varsities, though the gross enrollment ratio in higher education in these backward districts is only 10- 15 %, against a state average of 33%,” said Ashwathnarayan.
Union minister Prahlad Joshi mocked the Siddaramaiah government stating that the Congress party, which had announced “Yuva Nidhi” – unemployment benefit to the fresh graduates, as one of the five poll guarantees, was not keen to shut down varsities that produce graduates.
The vice-chancellors who had met Siddaramaiah a few months back seeking funds, stated that the universities served underprivileged communities and underserved regions. The varsity in each district had encouraged greater enrolment of women for higher education, as they could also avail free bus (Shakti) scheme.
The protesting students demanded that the government look beyond politics and spend wisely on what truly empowers the youth by advancing higher education in the state rather than treating universities as a financial burden.
The state currently has 41 state government universities, 27 private universities, 11 state deemed universities and one central university.
