MU in the news for wrong reasons : Spend time in the dept
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 04 2018 -

Again Manipur University is in the news and again it is not for the right reason.

Students under Manipur University Students’ Union have pointedly said that the Vice Chancellor of Manipur University, Professor Adya Prasad Pandey is away most of the time rather than looking after the functioning of the university and this goes against the understanding of the VC of Manipur University.

It has been a few days that the protesting students have been derailing normal functioning of the university and this certainly cannot go on forever, for what one is talking about here is the highest seat of learning in Manipur.

How the MU authority goes about dealing with the matter remains to be seen, but it does not say anything positive about the university which was set up in 1980.

How many scholars of repute has MU been able to produce ever since its inception more than 30 years back ? How about research ?

What notable research works has MU been able to come out with since its establishment ?

These are all questions but remember these are important questions.

How about the teaching faculty ? Have they been able to fire the imagination of the serious students and have they been encouraging research works in their respective departments ?

These are all questions at the moment, but important for one here is talking about a place of learning and the questions raised here all pertain to what a centre of learning should be about.

Here it is important to note that while MU has been ranked at 320 in the country, neighbouring Nagaland University is ranked 95 by NIRF.

Compare this rank with other North East varsities such as Gauhati University which is ranked 83rd or Tezpur University which is ranked 7th in a survey by the Times Higher Education.

More than obvious that every thing that can go wrong seems to have gone wrong at MU.

What is the way forward ? Here it becomes important for all in MU to understand that going to the university should mean going to the department they belong to.

Does not make sense to spend most of their time at the Administrative Block.

Remember the primary duty of a teacher is to teach and not to cultivate friends at the corridors of power.

Not that all the teachers do this, but even if there are a few who do this then this must be stopped.

The Vice Chancellor too must understand that he is here to head the highest seat of learning in the State and it absolutely makes no sense to treat this as a part time job.

Has the Registrar been appointed on a permanent basis or is the incumbent appointed on a part time basis ? What about the Deans ?

Manipur University certainly cannot afford to go on like this forever. Something has to be done and the first step has to come from within the university.

And this should start from the office of the VC and the teachers should follow suit. Make the university a place of learning and not a place which encourages chamchagiri.

Let there be a race towards excellence and let merit and only merit be awarded and not knowing the right people at the right places.

Let the teacher also come to the realisation that their job is not only about enjoying the perks and benefits of the 7th Pay but also about producing meritorious students