If anything aptly sums up the sorry state of affairs at the Valley’s highest seat of learning today, it is its fast-paced transition from ‘the light into the darkness’ as against its motto, inscribed boldly in its logo, which vows to navigate the students ‘from the darkness into the light’. And part of the credit for this progressive regression must go to the incumbent Vice Chancellor. Because we must give credit where it is due. This transition ‘from light into the darkness’ appears to be gaining momentum with each passing day—thanks to the administrative ineptitude, academic degradation and blatant disregard for ethics and morals that have come to define the University of Kashmir today.
The fall in the University’s ranking from 33rd spot to 45th in this year’s NIRF ranking, the steep decline in its admissions in the last three years in particular, the holding of interviews for posts of assistant professors by the Vice-Chancellor at the fag end of her tenure in brazen disregard of well-established norms and practices, and the audacity to entertain the candidates into its PG programmes without holding the entrance examination—all points to a bottomless pit that the University seems to have fallen into. And worse is the insensitivity of its University Council, its Syndicate and the Academic Council to pull the institution out of the morass of academic and administrative decay. And this insensitivity is what makes these so-called ‘powerful’ bodies a direct party to the fading glory that the University of Kashmir was once known for.
For the kind information of the incumbent Vice-Chancellor, who said in her first interview to a media channel after her taking over as VC that “she knows even trees and plants of the Kashmir University”, the following anecdotes would be an appropriate reminder of the kind of legacy that some former Vice-Chancellors of the University have left behind, and which continue to be quoted by many conscious citizens every now and then. The first anecdote is: “A former Chief Minister of J&K (may God bless his soul), despite being the University’s Pro-Chancellor, once sought an appointment with the Vice-Chancellor (may God bless his soul). The Pro-Chancellor could have called the Vice-Chancellor to his chamber given his stature and rank, but because the Vice-Chancellor’s chair deserved a greater respect, the Pro-Chancellor sought a proper appointment.” And the second anecdote says: “Once a former Pro-Chancellor was made to wait by a former Vice-Chancellor of the University in his office chamber since he (the VC) was busy in a meeting.” But today, the UT’s ‘Warrant of Precedence’ would tell you where the VC stands: right below the DDC members, and just one step above the Deputy Commissioners. And the VCs are themselves to blame for this ‘positioning’ for being pretty comfortable with the same. Anyways, that is not the debate here. The point is the rich legacy that the Vice-Chancellors of Kashmir University like Prof Shah Manzoor Alam, Prof Raies Ahmad and Prof Wahid-ud-Din Malik are known for decades later. That was the glory that Kashmir University was, and no longer is. If the incumbent Vice Chancellor’s legacy is anything to be remembered as, it is the legacy of aiding the University’s transition from ‘light into the darkness’.
The decay in the University today runs through all its domains. The level of ineptitude and favouritism is such that a maths teacher is found ‘perfect’ for the assignment of a sports department he knows nothing about, and a linguistics teacher is tasked with ‘advising’ the University on media matters despite the University having a well-established media department with a significant strength of permanent faculty. An even worse case is a ‘teacher’ who holds a top varsity office today hasn’t been to a classroom for the last 15 years due to his ‘over busyness’ with administrative assignments within and outside the University. This is not the end. The height of travesty is the grapevine that says how a select group of individuals is working overtime to out-throw their colleagues out of the campus with false bogies using their ‘influence’ and ‘access’ to the power corridors. And all this: only to cling to their chairs and boost their personal and promotional prospects at the altar of their far highly-qualified colleagues.
Today, the gates of the University of Kashmir are named after revered personalities like Moulana Rumi, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Zain-ul-Abideen. But if there is nothing to suggest that the University has been able to bring in the imprint of these great personalities into the lives of its students, then it is only an insult to the legacy and knowledge that these personalities spread throughout the sub-continent. Today, the Vice-Chancellor may well roam from one auditorium to another to ‘inaugurate the events’ and make a photo-op, but that hardly serves the purpose of fulfilling the University’s vision and mission of producing scholarly minds. Scholarship doesn’t come with petty ‘Chrighish’ festivals and events. It comes with serious endeavors that open up a space for exchange of ideas, with a deep sense of societal connect. Today, the VC may well preach the need for environment protection, when her own campus has turned into a concrete jungle with massive constructions that only mislead people into believing whether they are in a University campus or a Downtown ally. Today, the VC may well preach us the promotion of Kashmiri and Urdu languages, when the Kashmiri and Urdu departments of the University have barely one or two permanent faculty members left to teach the students.
The University’s mandate is certainly beyond ‘inaugurations’. It concerns teaching as much as it concerns research. If the University remains cut-off from society, it is doomed to fail. And that is the case with the University of Kashmir. How many times has the University produced ‘research’ that addressed our social, environmental or economic challenges? How many studies have been done on drug abuse that has engulfed our youth? The University authorities may well boast of producing hundreds of PhDs and M.Phil scholars every year. And the only idea to do so is to boost its so-called rankings, thus reducing these ‘research scholars’ into mere statistics, rather than scholars who have contributed to societal welfare and wellbeing. If the University is not able to think beyond ‘Chirgish’ festivals and inaugurations, where shall it find time to fulfill its lofty ‘vision’ and ‘mission’ of producing scholars of repute?
Today, the University of Kashmir is more than 70 years old. Indeed, it has produced scholars and academics of repute. It has braved odds of turmoil in the Valley to maintain a standard for examinations and teaching. But these are only stories of yesteryears. Today, the University is clearly in a mess and needs to be saved from becoming a C-grade University that none would prefer to study in. The challenges are mammoth in this age of artificial intelligence and machine-learning. There is no short-cut to academic progression. An ‘inauguration’ by the VC certainly will not compensate for the University’s march to excellence.
It is time to save Kashmir University. TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. KU is an asset that cannot be allowed to fall prey to academic disorder and administrative anarchy. The Honourable Chancellor of the University, who is himself a worthy product of Banaras Hindu University, one of the prestigious institutions in the country, and the able Pro-Chancellor of the University—whose grandfather late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was Kashmir University’s founding pro-Chancellor—have an onerous responsibility of saving the University. An audit of its academic programmes, research output and administrative efficacy would certainly help make the University progress in the right direction. Halting the ongoing interviews for posts of assistant professors immediately, which have earned the tag of being illegal and unconstitutional, would certainly aid the restoration of the lost trust between the students and the worthy offices of Chancellor and Pro-Chancellor. But for this to translate into action, it is important that the incumbent Vice-Chancellor is asked to go by a marching order. Because saving institutions is bigger than saving individuals.
