The Berhampur University, which has since several years drawn public attention for various misdeeds and corrupt practices, is currently passing through a state of administrative crisis, said well-known social worker and coordinator of Manav Adhikar Suraksha Manch Abani Kumar Gaya in a Press release here.
He attributed the situation to the continuing corrupt practices and formation of vested interest groups among the faculty and administrative staff since last one decade which has tarnished the image of this great seat of higher learning. No student leader is trying to safeguard the image and interest of the university, he lamented.
Some senior faculty members have been encouraging groupism and instigating students to settle scores for their own vested interests instead of resorting to serious teaching and guiding research which is quite surprising, Gaya said.
The series of examination scams highlighted in the media during last few months has seriously hit the reputation of the university and the entire nexus responsible for it needs to be probed by an impartial judicial committee and not by any internal members against whom charges were framed in the past, he said.
He further pointed out that the UGC guidelines and rules have been flouted in most of the cases by the university administration apparently for misappropriation of UGC funds in a routine manner. The very purpose for which great student leaders of the 1960s and public led the agitation for establishment of a university for south Odisha at Brahmapur, the campus of which is named after the great poet of the region Kabisamrat Upendra Bhanja, has been defeated.
Some professors, student leaders and officers are utilising the university to serve their vested interests without showing an iota of interest for its development and academic excellence, Gaya alleged. Students are becoming sycophants of some teachers and local politicians, which would have a tremendous adverse impact on the future generation of students as well on growth of higher education in south Odisha, he cautioned.
Gaya appealed to intellectuals, academics, and denizens of this century-old city to come together on a single platform to restore peace, reputation and an ideal academic atmosphere in the university.