UVCE Students Protest Fee Hike and New Campus Construction Amid Faculty Shortage

The student body also pointed out that permanent lecturers are drastically under-recruited at UVCE. Students at UVCE protest fee hike, new campus: The AIDSO said that a meeting would be held today with the vice-chancellor to discuss faculty shortage and the KR Circle heritage building.

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This is because AIDSO is opposing the state government’s decision to construct a new building for the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) at Jnana Bharathi, as it says the building project is not a need. The student body is now disturbed not just by the faculty shortage, but also by the hike in fees. The controversy over the building project, on the one hand, and faculty and fee hike on the other, has besieged one of the oldest and most prominent engineering colleges in Karnataka – UVCE.

According to the statement issued by Kalyan Kumar V, district secretary of AIDSO, the reason was the “sharp increase of fees in the last two years”. In the opinion of AIDSO, the present Rs 47,000 fee structure now acts as a bottleneck to the entry of students from financially backward sections into this institution.

Fee Hike and Financial Burden on Students

AIDSO condemned that such an environment has been created by the government that this fee is only reachable to the luxurious ones; otherwise, quality education to all is not a principle. “While the College fees have doubled in the last two years, a situation is created that only those who can afford the fee of 47,000/- can get admission in this college,” said the student body.

Against this backdrop, AIDSO said, “It’s placing all the burden of finance on the students on exorbitant fees and sanctioning 100 crores for constructing a new building!”

Lack of permanent lecturers at UVCE

The student body also pointed to the question of permanent lecturers at UVCE. AIDSO asked, how such grievances notwithstanding, the government can decide to spend Rs 100 crores on constructing a new “IIT-type” campus at Jnanabharathi. Students and faculty alike are questioning where the government’s priorities lie. For year after year, the college teeters on the brink of financial crisis.

“The government is putting all the financial burden on the students by exorbitant fees on one hand and sanctioning 100 crores to build a new building on the other! Altogether a new campus raises questions about the attitude of the government., said the AIDSO official statement. Heritage represents its concerns over the historic UVCE building.

The other issue cited by the AIDSO is that of the future of the heritage UVCE building at KR Circle, a century-old building and one included in Visvesvaraya’s vision for engineering education. It suspects that creating an entirely new campus would leave the prestigious building to dust and neglect, hosting considerable cultural and educational values.

The heritage of the building in KR Circle is 100 or more years. It was a dream of Visvesvaraya. Ever since the college became a self-financed institution, students and teachers have been fighting with each other every year to get funds from the government. In such a scenario whose welfare is the new 100 crore building being built? In such a case what will be the future of the existing building in KR Circle?

This should bother the UVCE students community about the possible long-term implications on heritage and academia. According to AIDSO, this government should not be in such a hurry to make decisions that need rethinking on immediate issues of this institution, like unnecessary burden on students and acute shortages of teaching staff.

Conclusion:

The growing concerns among the students about fee hikes, permanent lecturers, and the government’s proposal to spend Rs 100 crore to develop a new campus, are presently revealed in the protests that have erupted at UVCE. “Faculty recruitment deficiencies are the immediate issues for us,” said AIDSO. Further, the future of the KR Circle building, built centuries ago remains uncertain, as well as the safety of its heritage. The students continue to demand a more thoughtful and balanced approach from the government in reviving education quality and heritage instead of the dreamt-about infrastructure projects.