171 Challenges and Opportunities 2016 I BHU : Vision for the New Millennium

-.

;"...",,/~ f 4~..~

with a deep sense of Indianness. The excellentinfrastructural facilities, many of which were aheadof times for India, model campus life and themagnetic personality of pt. Malaviyaji made BHUthe most favoured destination for the talentedstudents and learned faculty from all parts of thecountry. Although designated as 'The BenaresHindu University', this National University has allalong been a catholic institution open to persons ofall classes, castes, creeds, and of both sexeswithout any discrimination whatsoever. A largenumber of home-grown future Builders of theNation received their training at BHU. It is aremarkable success story of the fructification ofthe dream of a great nationalist visionary, pt.Malaviyaji.

In the new millennium, the BHU brand name facesa stiff challenge both at the national and the globallevels. The decades old infrastructure, an ossifiedsystem of administration, management andrecruitment of staff, as well as decline in statefunding as compared to the more recentlyestablished and well endowed brand institutionslike IITs, AIIMS, IIMs etc, are the major threats tothe survival of the BHU brand name. The percapita expense on BHU is brought out by thefollowing table which is self explanatory.

In the liberalised and globalised environment, BHUfaces challenges not only from publicly fundedIndian Institutions but also from private universitiesand colleges, as also foreign universities andinstitutions.

As India strives to compete in the knowledge basedeconomy, it needs a number of world classuniversities that produce not only bright graduatesbut also support high quality research. TheBanaras Hindu University, in its last decade of thecentennial year, resolves to take all necessary stepsto propel it into a world class institution. As a firststep towards realizing this goal, the University hasidentified the following aspects to be addressed astop priorities

(I)

(II)

(III)

(IV)

(V)

(VI)

Infrastructure strengthen ing

Attracting and Retaining Talented Faculty

University Governance

Academic Reforms

Research Priorities and Reforms

Development of the South Campus

Institution Depts. Faculty Students Budget (annual)BHU 2005-06 127 -1827 15260 174 cr.IISc 2005-06 <34 -300 -2500 130 cr.

BHU Centennial Decade 118

I. Infrastructure StrengtheningThe infrastructure created by pt. Malaviyaji wastruly modern, majestic and ahead of its time incolonial India. However, the decades oldinfrastructure of the University is now proving to begrossly inadequate and inappropriate in meetingthe stiff competition posed by relatively newerinstitutions established after independence andendowed with more funds on a per capita basis.The rejuvenation of the existing infrastructuralfacilities and creation of new facilities in terms of

(i) residential quarters (ii) hostels (iii) guest houses(iv) conference centres (v) recreation andcommunity centres (vi) communication system (vii)lecture theatres and (vi ii) infrastructu re ofindividual departments/schools needs to be giventopmost priority for attracting, retaining andnurturing talented students and bright faculty alike.Our vision for strengthening these categories ofinfrastructure is outlined below.

(a) Residential quarters

As against over 1800 teaching faculty membersand nearly 7000 non-teaching staff, there are only538 and 678 quarters, respectively, for these twocategories. The present wait list for the Lecturer~Reader, Professor grade quarters is too long,extending over 10 years! The situation for the non-teaching staff is no better. For attracting brightfaculty and skilled non-teaching staff from any partof the country or from abroad, the minimumrequirement is the provision of campusaccommodation immediately after joining.Sufficient funds will have to be allocated for theconstruction of at least 500 new residentialquarters for the teaching faculty and another 500

.for non-teaching staff. Some of the old dilapidatedquarters with sprawling compounds can bedemolished for constructing 1,2,3 and 4 bedroommultistoreyed apartments. A few blocks of suchapartments may be reserved exclusively for womenstaff members to help them discharge theirprofessional and social responsibilities withsomewhat lesser strain and anxiety for security.This will enable the University to tap the availabletalent amongst the female section of the societyalso.

(b) Hostels

The University at present has 60 hostels, includingthree for foreign students. This is grosslyinsufficient to accommodate the 15000 plusstudents. At present, hardly 60% of them gethostel accommodation, and nearly half of themshare double occupancy rooms. If the number ofseats is to be enhanced in pursuance of theadditional reservations policy, the situationregarding hostel accommodation is going to begrimmer. For attracting good students from allparts of the country, the university will have toprovide hostel accommodation, preferably on asingle occupancy basis. The University should,therefore, plan for adding at least 10500 hostelrooms in immediate future. These additional

rooms may be constructed by adding extra floors tothe existing hostels and/or by constructing newhostels. A breakup of new hostel rooms requiredfor various categories of students is given below.

Boys Girls ResearchScholars

MarriedResearchScholars

500

ForeignStudents

5000 2250 2000 250

The existing hostels also need to be renovated forproper flooring, hygeinic kitchen, furnished halls,clean toilets, reading rooms, indoor games andrecreation rooms. All the rooms in the old and

proposed new hostels need to be provided withinternet connectivity.>.>>>>-..>~'

191 Challenges and Opportunities 2016 1BHU : Vision for the New Millennium

r

(c) Guest House

For a university of the size of BHU, the existingguest houses (including the new IT Guest House)with a total of less than 75 rooms are grosslyinsufficient. It is necessary to build a new triplestoreyed guest house complex with atleast 100rooms (i.e., 200 beds).

(d) Conference Centre

The organisation of academic meetings, seminars,workshops and conferences of moderate tosomewhat bigger sizes has always been a challengedue to the non-availability of sufficient number ofwell furnished seminar rooms at one single site,sufficient guest house accommodation, and otherlogistic support. Although there is an excellentSwatantrata Bhawan auditorium with a seatingcapacity of about 2000 persons, one needs severalsmaller size seminar rooms adjoining thisauditorium with a capacity to accommodate about200 persons each for running parallel sessions forsuch conferences. The second challenge facing theorganization of a conference in the University isfinding accommodation for the participants. Thecity hotels are not only expensive but are too farand not easily reachable during daytime due toheavy traffic. Also, the ambience of a meeting held

entirely within BHU campus is unmatchable. TheUniversity, therefore, proposes to develop theSwatantrata Bhavan area into a modern centrallyairconditioned Conference Centre with theconstruction of at least 6 new seminar rooms, eachfully furnished to accommodate approximately 200participants. The proposed new guest house mayalso become part of this new Conference Centrewhich can be utilized to accommodate a majority ofthe senior participants for the big conferences. TheUniversity would like to set up an EventManagement Unit which would not only maintainthe Conference Centre but also provide the logisticsupport for arranging transport, communication,catering, publication etc. related to such meetings.

- BHU Centennial Decade 120

i<

<."

(e) Student and Staff Activity CentresThe University at present has a swimming pool,sports complex for indoor games and playgroundsfor various outdoor sports, gymnasium halls, ateachers club housed in one of the residential

quarters and a dilapidated non-teaching staff club.In addition, the Malaviya Bhavan, the Faculty ofMusic, the Yoga Centre, the Centre for Ethics andHuman Values regularly organize spiritual, social,cultural and musical events. The Vishwanath Templeon the campus is an important centre of spiritualactivities for staff, students and tourists alike.There is, however, a need for providing bigger spacefor the Centre for Ethics and Human Values as well

as Yoga Centre to grow further. Both these activitieshave received excellent response from personswithin and outside the university fraternity. Theteachers club and the non teaching staff club needbigger buildings and more amenities. The universitygymnasium hall needs to be modernized andexpanded to include other hobbies like photography,music, painting etc. for the students. The residentsof the campus have since long felt the need forparks for their children. The university proposes toaddress these issues in the years to come.

(f) Communication Facilities

In the current era of information technology, it isabsolutely essential to overhaul the existing inter-and intra-net connectivities not only for access toweb, e-mail services, library journals andcomputation but also for general administration and

211 Challenges and Opportunities 2016 I BHU : Vision for the New Millennium

-- - -

..

finance. The university proposes to provide (i)internet connectivity and a personal computer toeach faculty member, (ii) internet connectivity toeach of the residential quarters, (iii) internet accesshalls with 50 to 100 active terminals in each majorDepartment/School and in each Hostel, (iv)internet access hall with about 250 terminals in the

library for on-line journals and digital books, (v)intranet connectivity terminals at the desk of eachoffice staff and the heads of various administrative

units. The requirements of appropriate bandwidth,specification for the servers, and the number of theactive and dumb terminals are to be looked into byan expert group to be constituted by the University.The telecommunication link on the campus alsoneeds to be upgraded and modernized so that eachfaculty member is provided with a telephone line in

his office as well as in the residence through theuniversity intercom. New technologies such asVOIP can be utilized for this.

(g) Lecture Theatre Complexes

For the teaching of ever increasing number ofdegree/diploma/certificate courses as also theincreasing number of subjects in each course, thereis an acute need for more lecture theatres. It is

proposed to construct at least six lecture theatrecomplexes, each having about 10 lecture theatres,in multistoreyed structures located in differentparts of the campus. The non-availability of anadequate number of lecture theatres is one of themajor hurdles in adopting a cafetaria system basedlearning in which the students can earn aprescribed number credits by taking also coursesfrom departments/faculties other than their own,as also in the widespread use of newer educationaltools and techniques.

(h) Infrastructure for Academic Units

More constructed area needs to be provided inpractically all the buildings of variousdepartments/schools for instructional and researchlaboratories, office space for the teaching andadministrative staff, class rooms, reading rooms,computer and internet access halls, and workshop(wherever applicable). The physical environment ofthese buildings has to be modernized to make itaesthetically pleasant and congenial for work andstudies. The research laboratories of the Facultiesof Agricultural Sciences, Engineering andTechnology, Medical Sciences and Science housingsophisticated instruments with airconditioningshould be reorganized for central airconditioningfor each department/school. This will not onlyreduce the electricity bill but will also remove theweb of electrical cables for the currently usedwindowairconditioners.

(i) Allocation of Additional Space to IT,IMS, Faculty of Science and IASRecently, the Central Government has decided toupgrade the Institute of Technology, the Institute ofMedical Sciences and the Institute of AgriculturalScience to the status of an liT,the AllMS and theState Agricultural University, respectively. Thesubstantial funding needed for upgradation of theInstitute of Technology and the Institute of MedicalSciences has been agreed to by the government. Asimilar decision for the upgradation of the Facultyof Science to an Institute of Science is on thecards. The three Institutes would require additionalspace to expand and grow their programmes.Further, the Faculty of Ayurveda, with tremendousglobal potential, needs to be provided more spaceto grow. The Modern medicine and Ayurvedicmedicine faculties, and similarly the Institute ofTechnology and the Faculty of Science on the samecampus has unique potential for their synergistic

. growth. For all these expansion, land near theoriginal foundation stone on the eastern side of thecampus, the land on the southern side of the ITcampus and the space available at South Campus,Barkachha could be potentially utilized. These mayrequire shifting of some of thedepartments/faculties in a phased manner to SouthCampus for better logistic support for theiracademic and research programmes.

i

BHU Centennial Decade 122

- - --

(j) Strengthening of the Sir SunderlalHospitalThe University proposes to upgrade the existingfacilities of the S.S. Hospital, which is both ateaching hospital and a major referral hospital forthe entire East UP-Bihar region, and developanother 500 bed superspecialty hospital. Theproposals for these are at various stages ofconsideration in the ministry.

A superspecialty wing of the S.S. Hospital involvingan outlay of Rs.500 crores along with the proposedsubstantial commitment to sanction funds for thehospital by the government will modernize andupgrade facilities manifold.

J

J

231 Challenges and Opportunities 2016 I BHU : Vision for the New Millennium

II Attracting and RetainingTalented Faculty

.. For a world-class university, one requires world-class faculty. The visionary founder, pt.Malaviyaji, knew it better than anybody else. Henot only invited eminent personalities to provideleadership to various units of the University in itsformative years but also ensured that they wereable to execute their ideas without bureaucratichurdles. This exercise needs to be repeated. TheUniversity again needs to attract talented facultyon a large scale and on more or less continuousbasis. The large number of vacant and thoselikely to be sanctioned (owing to proposed 27%OBC reservation) teaching and non teachingpositions offer an unparalleled opportunity forrebuilding of the BHU brand name for itsacademic standards.

For attracting and retaining world-class faculty,flexible selection procedure, liberal funding,provision for seed money on joining, allotment ofcampus accommodation alongwith selection,modern infrastructure, imaginative andsupportive administration, better promotionalpolicies, liberal attitude towards study leave,respectable teacher-student ratio and reasonableteaching loads have to be ensured.

~

,,-

(a) Selection Procedure

The present selection procedure of the Universityis too lengthy and inflexible as compared toIITs/IISc, to be able to recruit talented faculty, asand when they are available. The existing systemof fixed date of receipt of applications needs tobe replaced with the system of a continuousrolling advertisement and appropriate furtherprocedures as is the norm in some of the bestpublicly funded higher education/researchinstitutions (such as IISc/IITs) of the country.The university should also adopt the flexible-cadre system followed by the IITs/IISc in whichthe total number of faculty positions is fixedwithout any sub-divisions into three levels(Professor, Reader, Lecturer) and the recruitmentis made at a level commensurate with the

qualifications of the candidate. Forexceptionally bright candidates, provisionswill have to be made for his/her selection

against the vacant positions in the universityeven if the concerned department/schoolmay not have a vacancy. About 10% of thetotal faculty positions may be kept reservedfor filling of posts under this category.

(b) Attractiveness of the Offer

The selection of a good candidate byrevamping the selection procedure is notenough to ensure joining. The offer should bemade attractive too. Attractiveness can bebrought in by mentioning in the appointmentletter that on joining he/she would beprovided with (i) a residential quarter on thecampus, (i i) seed money of about Rs.1.0lakh to begin with and an assurance fromthe university for major grant forexperimentalists through a peer reviewsystem, (iii) furnished office space withinternet and telephone connections and apersonal computer with printer.

~"~""

---

(c) Retention

The biggest challenge for any good Institution worldwide is in retaining its brightest faculty membersagainst the allurement by other competingInstitutions. This requires providing better serviceconditions. This may include provision of a travelgrant, say Rs.l.O lakh, for three years (as is thepractice in the IISc) for attending internationalconferences, liberal leave rules for visits related tohigher studies, advanced research, conferenceparticipation etc, lesser teaching loads leaving moretime for advanced research, and generally positiveand supportive attitude of the administration at alllevels towards professional excellence. Performancebased differential system of encouragement /incentive is often adopted by evolved institutions toretain their best faculty. Such methods will have tobe brought into the system by the University. Forthe junior level faculty (lecturers/readers), the mostsignificant parameter for retention is timelypromotions based on performance indices.Unreasonable delay in holding interviews forpromotion not only demoralizes the performers butalso makes the job of poaching by other institutionseasier.

,

BHU Centennial Decade 124

III Administrative ReformsThegeneralperception,as reflectedin the NAACReport as well, about the university administration,especially the Office of the Registrar, is not veryencouraging. The vision of propelling the universityinto a World Class Institution would come to naughtunless drastic overhauling of the existingadministrative set-up is taken up. Here are a fewsuggestions for reforms.

(a) Decentralization

The efficiency of the decision making process canimprove by decentralizing the Central Registry. Tobegin with all matters related to various kinds ofleave (study, sabatical, deputation, duty, earned,special casual and casual leave for all categories ofstaff), submission and management of sponsored R& D projects including selection of staff, andselection, registration, progress report, leaveapplications for Ph.D. scholars could be handled atthe Faculty/Institute offices. The central registrymay concentrate on matters related to li-aisoningwith UGC, MHRD and other funding agencies,employees' service books, provident fund, pensionand gratuity, academic and executive councils,finance committee, budget and audit, andrecruitment and promotions.

(b) Autonomy to the InstitutesThe Executive Council of the University is alreadyseized of the matter. The three Institutes (IT, IMS,IAS), and the Faculty of Science after itsupgradation to the level of Institute of Science,could be given complete functional autonomy in allmatters related to administration, finance,recruitment, examinations, and all academicprogrammes under a loose federal set up andbroad policy framework. All such matters, wherethe policy framework does not exist, may bereferred by the Director of the Institute to theRector and Vice-Chancellor directly.