Uniform rules for Telangana universities

Hyderabad: In what could be a controversial decision, the Telangana government is considering preparing common guidelines for all universities in the state on financial and management aspects to cut down on costs.

According to senior education department officials, the government is planning to form guidelines to ensure uniformity as “universities have been taking varying decisions”. This could become controversial since not only are the varsities autonomous, their financial situation is also quite dismal.

Financial positions of various universities in the state are already quite grim with them depending on the government for grants, etc. Former vice-chancellors say that the burden of pension and salaries is the heaviest on universities with the annual bill touching about Rs 100 crore for Osmania University. Further costs like power, water and other bills require at least another Rs 200 crore annually.

“They have an annual expenditure of about '340 crore but internal generation is only about Rs 100 crore. The government has to pay the rest,” a senior official said. The guidelines will be formulated by officials of the higher education and finance departments.

“We haven’t formed the guidelines yet. It is under consideration. But, it has to be done. Universities don’t even know what their sanction is for pensions and salaries and they are just asking for money. Guidelines will bring uniformity among all universities.”

Meanwhile, it seems  Osmania University will not be in a position to pay salaries this month. However, a uniform guideline could attract criticism from universities considering their autonomy. The guidelines would obviously aim at reducing the amount of money given to the universities. Education department officials, on the other hand, say that universities can’t claim autonomy on what they spend as the state government foots their bills.

“The government wants to reduce the money it gives. It is asking to reduce the pensions completely. That would bring everyone on the roads,” a former vice-chancellor said. Universities say income generation has also drastically reduced in recent years due to reduction in exam fees, mushrooming of other universities etc.