Newly appointed VC plans to revive fund-starved university

Gagan K. Teja 

Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 16

Prof BS Ghuman, newly appointed Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, faces a herculean task of reviving the university that has been facing severe financial crisis, but he is in no mood to relent.

Within two days of his joining as the VC, the educationist already has a detailed plan about how he would generate more sources of income and revamp the existing academic and administrative functioning of the university that has been drawing flak for the past few years.

The Vice-Chancellor is holding meetings with all officials and teachers of the university round the clock to take corrective measures and pledges that he would work towards improving the overall performance of the university and restore academic excellence.

Admitting fiscal constraints, Prof Ghuman said: “Seeking government grant to bail out the university is just one of the ways since we will need an initial help to get going, but we have already chalked out a plan to put things back on track”.

“First, we will re-evaluate our fee structure keeping in mind all recent changes that have a direct impact on revenue generation. This does not necessarily mean that we will increase fee, but we will explore all options considering the paying capacity of individuals. Moreover, urging the staff members to contribute whatever amount they can from their salaries to help the university and start fund raising abroad to help the university in coming out of fiscal mess is also on my agenda,” said the VC.

Ghuman said he also had plans to utilise its infrastructure across different parts of the state and the university campus by tying up with professional institutions for running professional courses during evening hours to add to the university’s income. Also, the idea of running community colleges wherein the teachers would help in bridging the gap between academic teaching and market requirement was also on the cards.

However, the VC said he would put all his proposals in front of the authorities concerned to make sure that they were cleared in accordance with the rules and regulations of the university.

Prof Ghuman said he would focus on reviewing all courses in accordance with the market trends so that we generate employable graduates and postgraduates rather than just producing students.