We don't have teachers for 50% of the posts: UVCE Board chairman

University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) located at the heart of Bengaluru enjoys an iconic status because of its long-standing history.

UVCE was declared an autonomous university in 2021 with the aim of developing it into an IIT like institution. However, transforming it into an IIT takes more than just announcements and autonomy.

Rithu Dravid from News Trail spoke to Chairman of the Board of Governors (BoG) B Muthuraman on the institution's journey.

How do you plan to develop UVCE on par with IITs?

It will take some time for the transformation. A complete autonomous body will require academic, administrative and financial autonomy.

IITs by and large decide their own curriculum. They are heavily government funded along with alumni endowments and student fees. We have been partially granted autonomy.

We need high quality faculty. A curriculum redesign will be required. We need modern infrastructure and hi- tech class rooms.

Any special permission required from the government to recruit faculty?

The required strength for UVCE for teaching faculty is 139 and the government has sanctioned only 78 so far. I have requested the government to fill vacancies of 53 teachers.

We don’t have teachers for 50 per cent of the positions.

There is opposition to shift ing the iconic UVCE which is centrally located to the Jnana Bharathi campus.

It is a good thing to have a large area or space to set up the IIT like institution.

The government has promised us 100 acres of land on the campus. We have to make sure what we already have at KR circle now, the UVCE gets a big facelift. That building represents Sir M Visvesvaraya and with that comes high quality education and technology.

All that we need to do is renovate the interiors and make it look modern while the outward look stays historic.

There was a fee increase for students this year which triggered outrage among student organizations.

We have increased the fee for freshers, not for existing students.

The IIT fee structure is Rs 2 lakh annually while UVCE charges Rs 20,000 per year. Is this justified? The IIMs charge 12 lakhs early with state of the art requirements. Can an institute that charges Rs 20,000 annually provide IIT type of education? Good education costs money.

How will the new IIT model UVCE support rural and poor students?

When I was a student and went abroad, I borrowed the entire money from banks. I am the chairperson of the PREJHA foundation. We train 10 thousand tribal students per year and 90 percent are poor.

All this is loan based. We don’t have Nirav Modis among the poor people (laughs). The banks need to lend to people with no collateral security. I believe in the theory of supporting poor people. But it is not by not charging fees.

The student will surely be capable of returning the borrowed money when he is employed. UVCE has 20 per cent of its students from the SC and ST community.

I am a member of the board of Indian Institute of Dalit studies and also member of the TATA group’s ‘Council for Affirmative Action’ for 20 years. One of the things that attracted me to UVCE was that it is one institute that takes people from marginalized communities.

UVCE to continue admissions through KCET for 5 years- read the headlines. Your comments?

People look for headlines without understanding the issue. The admission is based on the Karnataka Entrance Exam which means all students who undertake the exams are from Karnataka.

CET is of a higher standard and will attract students from across India, therefore they expect better infrastructure, better faculty and superior facilities. Our infrastructure is not good enough as of now.

We need to create good quality education for the students of Karnataka. We need to do this one step at a time.