Blow to University Autonomy

THE Telugu Desam government in the last five years of its rule has brought about a number of changes in the education setup in the state, most of them undemocratic and retrograde Two years ago it had appointed the well known Vice-Chancellors' Committee which had brought out a thoroughly disgraceful document on higher education in the state. Based on the recommendations of the VCs' report, the Commissionerate of Higher Education was set up with K Ramakrishna Rao of Andhra University as the chairman. The commissionerate set-up, apart from being undemocratic had all the features of a siiper-university. Though it was supposed to be autonomous, all its members were nominated by the government. Neither the existing universities nor the teachers' bodies were consulted before the formation of the commissionerate.The commissionerate was vested with financial, administrative and academic powers and was given wide-ranging powers to ride roughshod over the autonomy of the universities. Additionally it was given powers to transfer teachers from one college to another. As was to be expected, the act which brought into being the commis- sionerate was struck down by the supreme court last year on a petition filed by the Osmania University Teachers Association (OUTA). But the joy of the teaching community in the state was short-lived.