OU set to lose its ‘excellent’ status

Hyderabad: The ‘University with Potential for Excellence’ status was given by the University Grants Commission to Osmania University last year. Now this title is in danger of being lost.
The UGC expert committee which is reviewing the academic performance of the university from Monday is upset at the violence and unruly behavior of students on the campus over PhD admissions.
OU gets a Rs 50 crore grant from the UGC for the UPE status. The funds will be released based on the report submitted by the expert committee. The committee moved into the  campus on Monday on a three-day visit.
Violence continued in the campus with students ransacking furniture and locking up departments, alleging irregularities in PhD admissions. With student organisations giving a bandh call, colleges were closed for two days.
The bandh forced the UGC expert committee to conduct meetings with deans and heads of department outside the varsity campus causing embarrassment to university authorities.
Though the UGC has agreed to release the money to develop infrastructure and research facilities on the campus, the varsity is yet to receive it. The funds will be released in a phased manner based on the reports submitted by expert committee of UGC after reviewing the academic performance of the university.
Another Rs 15 crore is allocated to develop research facilities on the campus, which will also depend on the report to be submitted by the UGC expert committee.
However, the OU vice-chancellor Prof S.Satyanarayana is confident of securing grants from UGC under UPE status, pointing out that the UPE status was conferred on OU in 2012 and the funds will be released accordingly. Meanwhile, the Osmania University Teachers' Association (OUTA), which postponed its 'maha dharna' scheduled on Monday to protest the manhandling of professors and ransacking of offices of deans and HoDs on the campus by the students over Ph.D admissions,  in view of the UGC expert committee visit, has decided to conduct its dharna on Thursday.
“We have postponed our dharna earlier, as any disturbance during the UGC committee visit will go against the university. However, with the committee's visit ending on Wednesday, we will go ahead with our protest on Thursday,” said Prof B.Satyanarayana, president, OUTA.
\Meanwhile, some student organisations conducted a meeting on Wednesday and invited some professors, to restore normalcy on the campus. The organisations called upon all the students to protect the academic environment on the campus and not to insist on indefinite closure of colleges which could dent the image of the university. The organisation also urged students not to resort to attacks on professors or use abusive language. They proposed to set up student-faculty committees to resolve issues and to build a healthy relationship between students and professors.