By signing the Tripartite MoU the DU VC succumbs meekly to the arm-twisting by the Government
The signing of the Tripartite MoU, the DU VC, meekly and without any expression of public concern, has demonstrated that concern for the university is right at the bottom of his priorities, if not his complete lack of concern. The Delhi University probably is the last of the Central Universities to have done so, all others having already either caved in or enthusiastically signed to please the Government.
Delhi University held out for so long due to teachers' reasoned critique of and opposition to the said MoU as a tool to push universities towards and commercialisation and privatisation of its activities, which are going to adversely affect the character and content of education and research. The VC had options such as involving the Faculties, Departments and Colleges in a debate over the MoU and representing their considered views on the implications of the MoU to the Government. He chose to please the Government that threatens him for the delay in signing and protects him from his wrong-doings as enumerated in the White Paper submitted by the DUTA.
What is the Tripartite MoU?
The Union Government bypassed consultations with the academia and brought in through Rule 229 (xi) of the General Financial Rules 2017 a requirement on the part of the MHRD, UGC and each of the Central Universities to ensure that each Central University expands its student intake every year and finances an increasing part of its expenditure. It requires Central Universities to meet their infrastructural needs, routine as well as on account of enforced expansion, through loans from Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) – an instrument created through budget announcement to push universities toward self-financing. The Tripartite MoU requires universities to continually increase the ration of internal (self-generated) financial resource to total expenditure through fee hike, shift to revenue earning commercial courses, engagement with other commercial activities and manage greater part of their research activities through extramural funding. Such steps have significant impact on the content of courses and direction of research by coercing universities to become dependent on the market.
Privatisation agenda of MoU is in keeping with that of the Draft NEP 2019
What the Tripartite MoU does is to intiate steps towards the privatisation design that forms the core of the Draft NEP 2019. The Draft NEP 2019 aims to reduce the number of HEIs while increasing the size of surviving institutions which all will be governed similarly by a privatised Board of Governors and have to have a Development Office to secure sources of funding other than Government funding.
The single-minded coercive steps by the Government to make universities sign the MoU is an indication that the Government is keen to push through the core structure of institutional reforms of higher education proposed in the draft. That the Government has no regard of serious consultation or the due process on an issue as important as National Education Policy is also evident in the several steps it has initiated even before the Draft has become NEP. Setting up SWAYAM, a MOOCS platform as a substitute for / interoperable with formal education, and National Research Foundation (NRF) through budget outcome confirm this fear that the Government does not care for due process or honest scrutiny while imposing steps affecting the quality of access to education.
The DUTA will broaden and intensify its struggle against the NEP as well as instruments of privatisation such as the Tripartite MoU
The Financial Rules ought to have concerned itself with responsible and transparent manner of utilising public funds. That these rules are being used to change the character of education is unacceptable. The DUTA will reach out to the public with informed critique of the Government policy towards education and appeal to the people to join their voice against the disastrous direction in which education is being pushed. Access to education by the poor and the marginalised as well as quality of education will suffer.
| Rajib Ray President, DUTA Rajinder Singh Secretary, DUTA |
Comments
Post a Comment
You can enter feedback / suggestions here.