Manav Bharti University students grapple with shortage of faculty

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, January 4

Students pursuing various courses at Manav Bharti University near Solan are facing a shortage of faculty but are compelled to continue their studies as they can’t migrate due to the non-availability of official record.

25 teachers for 300 students

• The university has terminated the services of 25 to 30 staff members since it resumed its operations.
• Around 25 teachers are teaching over 300 students pursuing professional courses such as B Pharmacy, law, BBA, BCA and B.Com.
• As many as 30 faculty members had resigned in December 2020. Though some staff was appointed last year, faculty members continued to leave.

The university is embroiled in a fake degree scam following which its administration was booked under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 120-B of the IPC in February 2020 for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy. The case is under trial and all relevant papers like marksheets, degrees, etc., have been seized by a special investigation team (SIT). This has stalled migration of students to other institutes.

The state government had appointed an administrator to run the university to facilitate regular studies of students from October 15, 2020. No new admissions have been made for the last two years.

“The fee deposited by the students is the lone source of income and no revision of fee has taken place in the last two years. Faculty members who get better options leave the job in the absence of annual salary hikes,” said Sandeep Kumar, a university official.

Nearly 25 to 30 staff members have been terminated by the university since it resumed its operations and about 25 faculty members are catering to over 300 students pursuing professional courses like B Pharmacy, law, BBA, BCA and B.Com. Nearly 30 faculty members had resigned in December 2020. Though some staff was appointed last year, faculty members continued to leave from departments like pharmacy.

The university has failed to start regular classroom study and only online classes are being held. This is detrimental to the interest of students pursuing pharmacy courses where lab work is an integral part of the study.

Though students of practical courses like pharmacy are called for lab work, in the absence of regular classroom study, the quality of education suffers. This has put a question mark over the state government for running the university under such circumstances.

Though classroom study resumed in this academic session from September in several universities, the MBU had stuck to online classes only.

Sandeep, a university official, while confirming the news, said, “We are conducting online classes for the students and classroom study has not resumed as there are limited resources. Additional staff was terminated and it is not possible to bear the expenditure on running hostels, mess, etc. in the present scenario.”