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Karnataka’s state universities are facing a severe crisis due to acute staff shortages, lack of funds and policy confusion. Several universities lack full-time vice chancellors and depend heavily on guest faculty. The ‘One District, One University’ policy created unviable institutions, administrative chaos, legal disputes and fee hikes, leading to falling student enrolment.

Bengaluru: Once in the forefront of the educational activities in the country, the Universities in Karnataka are almost staring at closure, with severe shortage of teaching staff, students as well as funds.

Thanks to the government's mindless moves over the years, at least five of the 32 State Universities don't have full time Vice Chancellors, while once the premium universities like Mysuru University, Dharwad University and Mangaluru University are facing nearly 70% of staff shortage in teaching staff and are dependent on guest faculty.

Even the Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar admitted the problem during the ongoing winter sessions in Belagavi, while answering a question by BJP  member C T Ravi in the Legislative Council.

During the previous tenure, the BJP government had implemented 'One District, One University' policy, which created several district level universities that were carved out of existing universities. Of the ten such new universities, Koppal, Kodagu, Haveri, Bagalkot and Hassan turned out to be unviable. The government decided to merge these universities back with their parent universities. However, the move is facing stiff opposition by these university staff.

The higher education department officials say that the government decided to create new universities and passed Acts governing them. However, since the government did not formulate bylaws for these universities, there has been a lot of confusion in the administration. Before forming new universities, the government had recruited a number of lecturers to the colleges, which later became universities. These lecturers can not be transferred to any other government colleges or universities. Since no bylaw has been formulated, everyone is in a dilemma.

Adding to the confusion, there is a difference in the service conditions. While the government lecturers have to retire at 60 years, the retirement age for university teaching staff is 62.While the government lecturers are covered under the old pension scheme, the University staff are covered under the new pension scheme. This has led to a legal battle initiated by college lecturers.

Worst is that the universities have stopped getting government grants, forcing them to manage expenses independently. The universities were forced to hike fees steeply, resulting in a sharp decline in enrollment for undergraduate degrees, affecting economically weaker section students.

In total, the government created universities without providing infrastructure or grants and not giving any clarity over teaching and non-teaching staff. Consequently, There are only 180 teaching staff in Mysuru University, as against 571 sanctioned post, while other Universities like Karnataka (Dharwad) working with (198 of 620), Mangalore (123 of 273), Bengaluru University (120 of 365), Bengaluru City University (10 of 161) and Bengaluru North University (4 of 66).