10% quota: Don't have funds to add seats, fret varsities

NEW DELHI: Universities in Delhi have welcomed - some willingly, others grudgingly - the central government's decision to reserve 10% of seats for the economically disadvantaged among the upper classes. But they are concerned about the huge financial and infrastructural challenges in implementing the new provision from the next academic session itself.
Accommodating 10% students under a new quota means the universities have to likely increase overall admissions by 25%. The worry among both government and private institutions was the "lack of adequate time and money for implementation". When the OBC quota was rolled out in 2006, the University Grants Commission had provided the necessary funds. But this time, the institutions have been asked to rally their own resources.
Jawaharlal Nehru University officials said they weren't averse to the new quota though the hike in seats and the costs involved were yet to be discussed internally. Delhi University, having held up its planned expansion of student intake for two years for lack of funds, was apprehensive about the financial implications of the move.
IIT-Delhi and National Law University, Dwarka, both raised doubts over whether they had the infrastructure to manage the rise in admissions.
"We have to accept the new quota," said Chintamani Mahapatra, rector 1, JNU. "Under this scheme, poor students, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or community, will get the opportunity to study in a university." However, Mahapatra said that none of the universities had received a clear-cut communication from UGC on the new system yet.
Once it did, JNU would discuss its implementation internally, the rector said. "When we had to put aside 27% for OBCs, JNU accommodated the change. So when this new proposal comes before us, we will discuss it and come up with a plan," said Mahapatra.
However, unlike the OBC expansion when universities received financing from the government, this time the universities are required to generate their own funds. In this regard, even a university like JNU, where funds for amenities such as libraries have been an issue for a couple of years, the pressure is likely to be high. For DU, the implications are serious.
"Universities cannot generate new resources and overhauling the fee structure to increase revenue is what we will have to look at. But funding the new quota by raising fees may not be a workable model," said a senior official of the DU administration.
He pointed out that the 14 new courses cleared by the university's standing committee last year could not see the light of day for failure to receive the necessary funds from UGC. Similarly, no new hostel has come up in the past many years, except for the girl's hostel at Hindu College, whose high fees led to vehement protests.
Tanvir Aeijaz, political science teacher at the university's Ramjas College, was clear that a "25% increase in seats without funding is not possible". He also argued that the policy was contradictory in that universities were being asked to admit more students even as the faculty numbers were being pruned. "In a way, the government is pushing for contractualisation," he alleged.
Officials at IIT-Delhi were unsure if such a big step could be taken in such a short time. "IITs do not have a cap on faculty strength, so we can hire teachers to meet the demand of more students," an institute official said. "But how will we supplement the infrastructure? We have to give the students proper facilities."
Private institutions chose not to reveal their plans, though they too expressed anxiety over both the financial and infrastructural requirement in the immediate future if the policy was implemented this session.