CUET, no special ST quota: Central Tribal University Andhra Pradesh is struggling to fulfil its ‘mandate’

NEW DELHI: The Central Tribal University Andhra Pradesh (CTUAP), located in the Vizianagaram district, was the second tribal university to be set up in India, after the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University in Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh. Its main aim is to “provide avenues of higher education and research facilities primarily for the tribal population in India”.

However, five years since its inception in 2019, the university is yet to meaningfully meet its mandate in a lot of areas. Despite good industry tie-ups, the lack of additional reservation for Scheduled Tribes and the change in admission process wrought by the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) has meant that there are fewer seats for tribal students, despite being located in a tribal area.

Moreover, the university is still operating from a temporary campus with limited facilities which cause additional hurdles as students are forced to depend on private accommodation. The university even relies on faculty appointed on contract to take classes online to balance the working hours.

CTUAP curriculum, industry link

According to CTUAP officials, the university has a “special mandate” to ensure that their courses are curated with tribal issues in mind. There is also a focus on instilling the spirit of entrepreneurship among students, a majority of whom, officials say, hail from the tribal areas.

“Every course in a tribal university has some aspect of tribal issues at the heart of the curriculum. So, students who are studying here are aware and are linked with tribal issues. Moreover, being located in tribal areas, most of the students have a tribal background. It meets the educational needs of the students and also helps build their careers,” said Jitendra Mohan Mishra, dean, School of Management, CTUAP.

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At present, the university operates from the old Andhra University campus in Vizianagaram, which has limited infrastructure. It has 12 departments offering 18 undergraduate and postgraduate courses. According to officials, the current location of the university is an advantage as it is close to many industrial sites which bodes well for internships and jobs.

“Every department here is connected to the industry because we are in a good location. Students of the science courses, especially, are linked to the pharmaceutical companies here and get internships as well as certain preferences in jobs. Other social science departments and management departments also benefit. The travel and tourism department actually had 100% placements,” said Mishra.

No special reservation for ST

Despite being set up in a tribal area, the university is unable to ensure that students from Scheduled Tribes (ST) get into the university. None of the three tribal universities, including the newest, Sammakka Sarakka Central Tribal University in Telangana, which will begin its academic year in 2024, has any special reservation for tribal students, beyond the standard 7.5% mandated by the central reservation policy.

“There should be separate reservations for admission of tribal students in at least the tribal universities. The reservation policy in admissions in all the tribal universities is the same as other central universities. How does this make any sense? Then what is the mandate of the tribal university? If they empower more tribal students, they will empower the coming generation. Hence they should have more reservation,” said Parikipandla Sridevi, associate professor of biotechnology.

Academics also pointed out that without an additional reservation for tribal students, CTUAP essentially functions as just another central university. “Most tribes are underprivileged and are unable to go for higher studies. So, a nearby tribal university… will motivate them to go for higher education. Also, when the researchers go into the tribal populations and interact continuously with them, that gives positive feedback to them,” said Sridevi.

Admission and CUET

The introduction of CUET in 2022, caused further problems. Conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the CUET UG is a national-level entrance test for undergraduate programmes in the 44 central universities and other participating institutions offering general programmes of study.

Much like in other central universities, the change in admission process left swathes of seats vacant, delayed admissions by months and altered the nature and composition of student batches as applicants came from all over the country. It also defeated the purpose of setting up a tribal university in a tribal area.

“When many seats went vacant, we had requested our vice chancellor who requested the UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar to allow a special exemption to hold a second round of admissions based on a test conducted by the university,” said Sridevi.

For the past two years, the university has been holding second round admissions based on departmental tests to fill seats. While social science and management conduct a joint admission test, the science departments conduct their own.

Lack of faculty and infrastructure

Additionally, the university is held back by the lack of a permanent campus. The old Andhra University campus has limited infrastructure and lacks student hostels. “Getting a permanent campus and infrastructure is important. Not having a hostel is certainly a constraint as students are relying on private accommodation and that affects the admissions also,” said Mishra.

“We are running from a transit campus. We only have a few science courses such as botany, biotechnology. We don’t have other courses like zoology or maths, because we have not shifted to the new campus. Our departments have still not started PhD courses because of this lack of infrastructure,” said Anirudh Kumar, associate professor of Botany.

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The lack of infrastructure also means that there are not enough faculty members to divide the work. Most professors are forced to do twice the number of working hours. The university is reliant on contract teachers, who are mostly teaching students online. “Some departments have only one or two faculties. We are running short of faculty. These teachers are also currently teaching double-triple the hours that they are supposed to teach,” said Kumar.

A permanent campus for CTUAP might still take time as the government is undecided between two locations in Vizianagaram district. Although construction has been ongoing in Gajapathinagaram-Saluru mandals of the district, there are reports that the government is thinking of moving the university to Dattirajeru-Mentada mandals.

“Land transfer itself takes a long time. It doesn’t matter that we have a competent vice-chancellor if the transfer of land itself gets delayed. Then for any vice-chancellor it will be difficult,” said Kumar.