Suggestions for AMU
meaningfully to their family, community and society”.
Theauditreportsaid“the segregation of boys and girls up to the under-graduate courses in separateboys-onlyandgirls-only college is considered a legacy of the past especially when the workplaces and activities in the real world are gender-neutral”.
The AMU’s identity is a contentious political issue, with the centralgovernmentarguingthat granting it the status of a minority institution wasin violation of theconstitutionthatdoesnotpermit a secular India to set up and fund institutions on religious lines.
In July last year, the governmentwithdrewanappealfiledin the Supreme Court by the previous Congress-led government that had sought to retain the minority tag for the AMU. It also withdrewalllettersissuedbythe previous government allowing the AMU to reserve 50% of its seatsforMuslimsinthefacultyof medicine.
Reacting to the audit, AMU spokesperson Omar S Peerzada told HT: “As the university has not received any intimation or correspondenceinthisregardtill this date, we are not in a position to give any reaction.”
The UGC-backed audit also said many of the university’s departments could be merged. Forinstance, the separate Sunni andShiadepartmentsunderthe Theologyfacultycouldbemerged into a department for comparative religion.
“There is a need to merge departments to make them wholesome and to facilitate constant interaction with one another,”saidtheaudit,acopyof which is with Hindustan Times.
The audit panel pointed out that during its visit and interactionswithvariousstakeholdersit sensed “groupism being rife amongst teachers, arising from regional and linguistic biases”.
The audit also recommended abolishing admission quotas, includingthoseunderthediscretionofthevice-chancellorandfor the children of employees. It suggested reservations under other categories be made open and meritbasedasthepresentsystem “smacks of nepotism”.
“Admissionquotaforinternal candidates shouldbeasperstate government’s prescription for other universities in (Uttar Pra- desh),” it said.
“This will help in diverse mix of students in the AMU and as a sequel, lead to natural de-inbreeding,” it said, using an official term to describe the university’s practice of promoting its own students through primary and high school to post-doctoral levels before staffing most of its faculty with them.
“Whileonapersonalfrontthis couldbeconvenientandcomfortable, such continued stay in one place doesn’t help academically and professionally due to lack of exposureto the outside world…. Lack of such ingress and egress carries with it the seeds of a ghetto culture that is academically debilitating.”
It suggested that just as in the case of many other top higher educationalinstitutions,Masters andPhDsstudentofAMUtakea five-year breakbefore taking up a teaching assignment with the university.
The audit report also suggestedtheAMUfollowothercentraluniversitiesandIndianInstitutes of Technology and Indian InstitutesofManagementwhose vice-chancellors ordirectors are pickedthroughasearch-cum-selection committee and not through election.