Sans infra and staff, Odisha’s lone Open University stares at uncertainty

The fate of Odisha State Open University (OSOU) in Sambalpur has been pushed into uncertainty thanks to the alleged apathy of the state government.

With the recent decision to halt admissions into UG and PG courses for the current academic session, the future of hundreds of students in the only open university in the State has been pushed into oblivion.

Even after eight years of opening, the varsity is wallowing in neglect. The educational institution has failed to fulfill even a single criterion under the NAAC ranking. Taking it from the Vice Chancellor to the students, all are apprehensive about the university losing its approval.

The university doesn’t have basic facilities like good infrastructure, own textbooks and syllabus, lecturers and staff, research and hostel facilities.

“As per the Open University Act, the governing body has the power to appoint teachers. Either the government should appoint teachers within two to three months or give the governing body the power to appoint teachers,” said Aditya Prasad Padhy, former Vice-Chancellor of Berhampur University.

“The State government has done nothing for the infrastructural development and appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff in the university which is quite unfortunate,” said Manas Ranjan Buxi, a former student of the State Open University.

The university was set up in 2015. Hundreds of students have taken admissions into the university under 14 PG and 11 UG courses. However, even after eight years of functioning, the university doesn’t have its own building and it is functioning from the campus of Gangadhar Meher University. Forget about professors, even associate professors have not been appointed in the university so far, it was alleged.

Though the university authorities have informed the State Higher Education Department about their problems several times, nothing has been materialized yet.

Under the banner of ‘OSOU Banchaa Abhiyan,’ (OSOUBA), a group of citizens have announced their campaign to save the university. They have given a memorandum in this regard to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik through the north region Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC).

“There is a possibility of the closure of OSOU. If it happens, there will be a huge protest. The State government should step up immediately to build new infrastructure for the university and appoint new staff,” said Sudhir Bahidar, the convener of OSOUBA.

“When we are filling up NAAC forms, we are mentioning the number of sanctioned posts as zero which is a great problem for us. We have written letters to the State government in this regard many times. However, we are still waiting for a proper response,” said Arka Kesari Das Mohapatra, Vice-Chancellor of OSOU.