2 days Ago By Anu Kuruvilla
KOCHI: Maharaja’s College is back in the news, for not-so-good reasons. Unlike the usual scuffles between students’ organisations, this time around questions are being raised about the validity of the Kochi college’s autonomous status. According to data with the University Grants Commission (UGC), the college lost its autonomous status in 2020.
Though the college authorities claim they had applied for renewal in 2021, a lack of follow-up has led to a delay in the institution getting its autonomous status reinstated. Calling it a big dereliction on the part of the college authorities, especially the governing council and the principal, Save University Campaign (SUC) representatives questioned the quality of education being provided by the institution. According to SUC’s R S Sasikumar, the UDF government in 2014 had come up with a proposal to grant autonomous status to some select colleges in the state.
“It was then that Ernakulam Maharaja’s College and University College in Thiruvananthapuram were shortlisted from among those in the government sector. Maharaja’s, which is affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, was granted autonomy by UGC in 2014 for a period spanning 2014-15 to 2019-2020,” Sasikumar told TNIE. However, the college authorities failed to apply for the renewal of autonomy even as colleges owned by private managements ensured their renewals were sorted out.
“When asked why the renewal application wasn’t submitted, the authorities said they had done so in 2021. However, as per the manual, the renewal application needed to be submitted six months before the lapse of status or by March 2021. The college authorities didn’t do that,” Sasikumar alleged.
Queried on the issue, Maharaja’s College governing council member M S Murali said, “These are propaganda let loose by vested interests who want to destroy the institution. We had applied for the renewal of the autonomous status in 2021. The application has to go through MGU.
The university has already forwarded the application to the UGC and the process associated with the renewal of the status has begun. We will get the status back in a few days.” As for the validity of the degree certificates of the students who passed out in the years between 2020 and 2024, he said there will not be any issue once the status is reinstated.
At the same time, the functioning of the heritage college continues to be under a cloud with well-wishers pointing out that politics, especially the one followed by the ruling party, is leaving the institution rotten on the inside. “Look at the Arsho (SFI state secretary) case. He was able to move on to the seventh semester of the integrated course without even writing the sixth semester examination.
The college authorities claimed that it could be done so since only the 10th semester results mattered in an integrated course,” Sasikumar said. On condition of anonymity, a lecturer said, “It has become a matter of shame that the institution, which has highly qualified lecturers and professors recruited via the Kerala Public Service Commission, is unable to do anything because of the political games played by a handful. See how no well-qualified person wants to become the principal of the college.
No other institution in the state has principals parading in and out in a matter of months.”.
