VC urges fraternity to help varsity regain glory
PRAYAGRAJ: Allahabad University (AU) vice-chancellor Sangita Srivastava called for the university fraternity to join hands in her efforts to help the institution regain its lost glory, on Friday. She urged teachers and staff members to come forward and on the strength of their academic and administrative work, take the university to greater heights.
Addressing faculty members and staff at the historic Senate Hall brimming to the capacity, the first woman V-C of the university promised teachers all support from the administration of the institution to help them focus on their basic work of teaching and research and help them strive for excellence.
She said that she was overwhelmed by the warm welcome accorded to her by the students, faculty members and the staff of the university. “I stand here as one among you who has been vested with the responsibility of steering the institution and face the challenges of reviving the old glory of this great institution.
“The erosion has been slow, and we all have witnessed the institution go into slumber. Some of you are senior to me, I look at you for good advice,” she said.
Conceding the slide in NIRF rankings of AU, she highlighted the poor existing studentteacher ratio of 1:80 in the university and the fact that teachers were continuously retiring with a lot of departments having to make do with 4 to 5 or even less faculty members.
She acknowledged that 585 posts of teachers were vacant and the vacancy in non-teaching staff was 584 out of the total 600 posts, conveying the immediate need for recruitments. “The university needs to build more buildings for students and for departments as well,” she said. She also spoke about the new education policy (NEP)-2020 and requested all heads of departments to discuss the policy in their own departments and then asked the deans to discuss it with the HoDs and make suggestions for its implementation in letter and spirit. She praised the teachers for their dedication towards their work and quoted Nelson Mandela: “Education is the only tool which can be used to transform the world into a better place.”