Ansari favours greater funds for state varsities

Vice-President M Hamid Ansari on Monday said "higher education cannot improve in India unless state universities are able to obtain greater funds". "Higher education cannot improve unless state universities, which are the backbone and represent bulk of enrolment, are able to obtain greater funds, create new infrastructure in their existing academic programmes," said the Vice-President while delivering the second Calcutta University foundation day lecture here.

Referring to Yashpal Committee recommendations, he pointed out that sometimes the budget of one central university in a state is either the same as or more than that of all state universities in that state. "Many state universities, including the old and reputed ones of Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune, are starved of funds, and this allocation could be used for improving the existing state universities and colleges which face a severe paucity of resources," said Ansari, who is an alumnus of the CU.

Governor M K Naraynan expressed his concern that the Calcutta University had slipped from its position in the past few decades. "I think the CU has dipped slightly over the past many years as compared to the first hundred or 120 years. This is unfortunate," he added.

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