The recent uproar in Dhanamanjuri University (DMU) has attracted quite a lot of attention in recent times, with academicians and concerned citizens including the illustrious alumni) of the premier institution crying foul over the lack of apathy from the state government. The DM College of yore, now divided into three separate institutions of different streams, was once a premier institution in the whole of Northeast and it had spawned illustrious personalities in every field.
After the conversion of Manipur University into a central university, a need for establishing a state university was felt and the passing of DMU Act in 2017 came as a blessing. DM University came into existence in April 2018 under The Dhanamanjuri University Act, 2017. The University was established under the National Scheme of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) as fulfilment of one of its primary components i.e., to convert colleges to cluster Universities.
The University is built up of the three Dhanamanjuri Colleges namely DM College of Science, DM College of Arts, DM College of Commerce along with GP Women’s College and LMS Law College. However, for about four years there was no academic leadership in the newly established university as it was administered through default by the Administrative Secretary-in-charge of Higher & Technical Education as the in-charge Vice Chancellor one after another, and an officer on deputation from the state government as the Registrar in charge. During that period of time, academic activities were mostly neglected leading to frequent spells of strike by students and teachers while construction activities of different buildings and other infrastructure under the RUSA fund went on full swing.
The neglect in academic administration led to a complex situation in 2021. All along, DMU has been running without a faculty of its own, but with borrowed teachers from the Department of Higher Education and it was yet to be fully recognised by University Grants Commission (UGC) as a full-fledged university. In 2021, university authorities came up with a notification for appointment of 88 Assistant Professors spread across 22 disciplines or subjects. By then, state authorities had come to its senses and a regular VC was appointed whose term was three years as mandated by the DMU Act. The results of the interview for recruiting faculty members and non-teaching staff were kept pending.
However, the results for faculty members were declared just before the regular VC demitted office after completion of his term, but the selected ones have not been given offer forms or issued appointment orders. Once again, the reins of DMU administration has gone back to the administrative secretary of the government. The reasons cited for delay in declaration of interview results include among others financial health of the state, importance of the posts and availability of ‘temporary’ manpower. We hope this explanation does not include the posts of all important VC and Registrar, although the posts are held by ‘temporary’ personnel as of now.
The appointment of regular VC and Registrar had been pending for about five months and six years respectively. One could see the desirability of ‘government control’ of the institution among the powers that be. In the past, we had raised this undesirable habit of withholding appointment of regular VCs or chief executives of autonomous institutions. Rather than a stop gap arrangement, adhoc arrangement was becoming more of a norm in the recent past. Heading a university is not all about having the required administrative experience, but more of providing academic leadership to the institutions. The qualifications for a VC were for the first time laid down by the UGC in 2010. As per this, a VC should be a distinguished academician with 10 years’ experience as a professor, and should have impeccable integrity and morals. But nowadays, lobbying with the powers that be seems to have become a tradition in recent times.
