With expenditure rising and revenue dwindling, Bharathidasan University staring at funds crunch

The proposed plan of bifurcating the Bharathidasan University is set to increase its financial strain

The proposed plan of bifurcating the Bharathidasan University is set to increase its financial strain.

As per the proposal mooted by the Department of Higher Education, a new university, named after former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, will be established by bifurcating the Bharathidasan University.

The Bharathidasan University, headquartered in Tiruchi, at present, has jurisdiction over all arts and science colleges in Tiruchi, Karur, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, and Nagapattinam districts. It has about 158 institutions under its purview. It includes 119 non autonomous colleges and institutions. Of them, the colleges in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Ariyalur and Nagapattinam are expected to be brought under the jurisdiction of the Kalaignar University. Minister for Higher Education Govi Chezhiaan had said that the new university would be headquartered at Kumbakonam.

The Bharathidasan University has a sanctioned strength of about 263 faculty members for four faculties, 16 schools, 39 departments, and 29 specialised centres in addition to the non-teaching faculty members. It depends mainly on the revenue generated through collecting affiliation fee from colleges, course affiliation fee, new programmes fee, student enrolment fee, examination fee, revenue generated from the students of distance education, and its corpus fund. According to sources, the university is struggling to meet its financial obligations, including salaries for the teaching and non-teaching staff members because of steady decline in revenue sources. It is attributed to various factors, including issues involving the running of distance education centres and the drying up of State funding.

It requires ₹6.5 crore to ₹8 crore every month for meeting its salary obligations to its both teaching and non-teaching faculties. The dwindling resources trouble the university officials to pay the salary. It will increase the burden once the Kalaignar University comes into being.

It is expected that the university will face nearly 50% drop in revenue from its affiliated institutions and colleges as the colleges that are expected to be part of the Kalaignar University will stop paying to the Bharathidasan University.

A senior official of the Bharathidasan University told The Hindu that there was no issue as of now in meeting its expenditure and it was being managed well. The modalities of managing the resources would be known only after further proceedings of the proposed establishment of the new university.