Uttar Pradesh: Makeover prescription

Mostly in the news for shootouts, student unrest and sine die closures (on September 18 last year the university was shut down sine die after a student, the third since April of that year, was murdered on campus), Aligarh Muslim University (AMU, estb. 1885) is looking for ways and means to raise teaching-learning standards. To that end a 37-page report titled Potential of Raising the International Status of the Aligarh Muslim University made public on July 26, has suggested sweeping changes in the modus operandi of the 133-year-old university which has a massive 25,000 students in over 100 departments and centres.The report is authored by a four member committee headed by Prof. M. Saleemuddin, a former vice chancellor of the university. Although it has discreetly steered clear of the recent controversies that have afflicted the university, it has offered extensive suggestions ranging from the appointment of the vice-chancellor and revision of syllabi, to interdisciplinary focus, research, semester system and even ways to deal with academic dishonesty and plagiarism. Certainly AMU, promoted by the eminent anglicised scholar and social reformer Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan as the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College and modelled on Cambridge University, but which has since acquired the image of a provincial theological institution, urgently needs a makeover. AMU has transformed into an insular institution over the years. Most of its students come under-prepared from UP and Bihar, thus its academic reputation and level of competitiveness have been severely hit. The faculty suffers from inbreeding. The university has to do a rethink of its ‘special status and initiate reforms on the lines suggested by the Saleemuddin Committee, says Irfan Ahmed, secretary of the AMU Old Boys Association. The committees recommendations made under 24 heads include the following: Faculty development. The committee enjoins the university management to discourage inbreeding and attract talented teachers from various universities and prestigious institutions, both from within the country and abroad, interviewing them through video-conferencing if necessary; provide faculty with access to contemporary literature in their disciplines, full texts of important journals and set up a sophisticated instruments centre to cater to the needs of the faculties of science, life sciences, agriculture, and medicine, etc; to monitor academic accomplishments of each faculty member on an yearly basis and to base promotion on merit. Asif Khan, a newly inducted teacher in the universitys history department admits that faculty upgradation and development is an urgent priority. The academic vigour that is the hallmark of a great institution is missing in AMU. Nepotism is rife, and theres been little genuine research in the past decade. The university does not figure in any annual list of rankings simply because it refuses to share information with the outside world. This is doing incalculable harm to its image. The only time AMU is in news is when violence erupts or when there are accusations of sexual harassment, says Khan. Admissions. To attract higher calibre students, the Saleemuddin Committee inter alia recommends admission of students in the undergrad programmes through all-India entrance…