Minister assures recruitment of teaching staff at the Music varsity convocation 

Annual convocation at Karnataka State Dr. Gangubai Hangal Music and Performing Arts University awards degrees and medals.

Minister for Higher Education M.C. Sudhakar, who is also the pro-chancellor, said that though the music varsity was established 17 years ago, no full-time teaching or non-teaching staff have been recruited, and the State government would initiate the process to pave the way for recruitment of staff.

He said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has also been apprised of the imperatives of financial support to the university given its role and scope of conserving traditional music and art forms. Besides, it lacked the wherewithal to generate its funds and hence the government should fund it.

The Minister was delivering his speech at the annual convocation of the Karnataka State Dr. Gangubai Hangal Music and Performing Arts University here on Saturday. Eligible candidates were awarded degrees and medals. The varsity clubbed the 7th, 8th, and 9th convocations and conducted it together as its student strength is limited compared to conventional varsities where thousands graduate every year.

Prof. Shrinivasa Varakhedi, Vice-Chancellor, Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi, delivered the convocation address and said that the government’s decision to bring the traditional exams conducted for awarding the vidwath certificates in music and dance under the ambit of the music varsity was a laudable move.

“As a result, more than 17,000 students from across Karnataka who are learning under the traditional guru-shishya parampara model, will be certified by the university in the future, and this augurs well for the future’’, he added.

Prof. Varakhedi said that music and literature or art and literature were two sides of the same coin and while the Western world distinguished art and science, India was the only civilization in the world that produced scientific treatises on works of art like Naatya Shaastra and Sangeetha Shaastra.

Referring to the growing trend of holistic studies with a thrust on a multi-disciplinary approach, Prof. Varakhedi said the Indian tradition had always encouraged it resulting in the synthesis of art, literature, and music.