Action committee urges Karnataka government to take over four constituent colleges of Mangalore University

Save Mangalore University's constituent colleges from closure due to financial crisis, urging government intervention for sustainable higher education.

Action Committee on Save Constituent Colleges of Mangalore University staged a dharna on the campus of Mangalore University at Mangalagangotri on Monday, July 15, urging the university not to close down its four constituent colleges citing financial crunch as the reason. It urged the government to take over the colleges and manage them through the Department of Collegiate Education.

Of the four constituent colleges that are owned by the university, one is an evening college functioning at Hampankatta in Mangaluru. The remaining three colleges are at Nelyadi, Bannadkka and Konaje.

The university had opened those colleges expecting the approval of the government. However, the government has not yet given its recognition to those colleges.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah through Vice-Chancellor P.L. Dharma, the committee said that the university is contemplating wounding up those colleges stating that it is facing a dearth of funds to manage those colleges. If the colleges are closed down, then many students from the poor and middle class will be deprived of higher education unable to bear the tuition fees and donations of private degree colleges.

The financial crisis being faced by the university is due to “its own financial indiscipline.” Hence, the government sanctioning more funds to the university, as demanded by the university, to manage the four colleges will not be a solution to the crisis. Instead, the government should bring them under the Department of Collegiate Education.

The committee said that the government education system in Dakshina Kannada is collapsing day by day. The higher education system is coming under the grips of the private sector. Pursuing higher education has become costly as the system has been commercialised. Hence, students from vulnerable sections of society are finding it difficult to get higher education. On the other hand, the government is not opening any new degree colleges or other higher education institutes. In such a situation, the government should strengthen the existing government colleges and make them competitive.

The university authorities themselves have admitted that since the government has not recognised the four colleges, the degrees obtained by them will become invalid. Hence, those four colleges should be made government colleges.