Varsities in AP face split trouble

Hyderabad: Having a university in one region and its constituent colleges in another is making it difficult for the higher education department to bifurcate these state-level institutions, when the new state of Telangana is created.

For example, Agriculture University, Telugu University, and Open University are in the Telangana region. But their constituent colleges are in the Seemandhra region.

Similarly, Law University and Health University are in the Seemandhra region while their constituent colleges are in the Telangana region.

The repatriation of faculty in these institutions will be another problem. Several faculty members of the erstwhile JNTU, for example, are still continuing in the city even five years after its division into four universities, in 2008.

Fourteen state-level universities will have to be divided.

Six are in the Telangana region and eight in Seemandhra. They are: Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad,

Damodaram Sanjeevaiah National Law University, Visakhapatnam, Dr NTR University of Health Sciences,Vijayawada, Dr YSR Horticultural University, West Godavari, Dr B.R. Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad, Dravidian University, Kuppam, JNAFAC, Hyderbad, Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad, Nims, Hyderabad, Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad, Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, Kadapa, Sri Venkateshwara Vedic University, Tirupati, Sri Venkateshwara Veterinary University, Tirupati, and Sri Padmavathi Mahila University, Tirupati.

When it comes to the central universities, all three are located in Hyderabad, namely Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Eflu and the UoH.

Though the bifurcation will not affect the admission procedure in the central universities, the report submitted by the officials to the Group of Ministers on Telan-gana said that it may lead to dissent among people in the Seemandhra region.

Of the seven deemed universities in the state, three are located in Telangana  and  three in Seemandhra.

In the private sector, three deemed universities — Vignan, KL and Gitam — are located in Seemandhra, while ICFAI is in Hyderabad.

It has been brought to the notice of the government that existing faculty in the state-level universities may refuse to move to other places after the bifurcation.

A majority of the staff working in state-level universities in Hyderabad is from Seemandhra, and if they refuse to move, it will impair the functioning of those universities in the Seemandhra region.

The government will have to make fresh appointments to fill the vacant posts arising out of bifurcation.