With 9 permanent staffers against the sanctioned 25 posts, the Bhatkhande Sanskriti Vishvavidyalay is grappling with shortage of faculty, even as the students are caught in the flurry of examinations . About half of the faculty comprise guest faculty members – roughly 60 students per teacher, across streams.
The Bhatkhande Sanskriti University (BSU), one of the leading performing arts universities in the state, is currently instructing around 1300 students, as per data from the administrative office, with a staff of merely 19 teachers ( 10 of them guest faculty). The off-balance student-teacher ratio has been a concern for over a year now, with vice chancellor Mandvi Singh counting it as one of her top priorities when she assumed office towards the end of 2022. Faculty members say that the efforts to loop in more teachers as permanent faculty are still ongoing.
The All India Survey on Higher Education, 2020-21 stated that “the teacher-pupil ratio was at 27 for all universities, colleges and standalone institutions and at 24 if only regular mode is considered due to which the quality of education remains a concern.” In Bhatkhande, the current ratio stands at roughly over 60 students per teacher, not accounting for the course-wise population.
As part of the new vice chancellor’s vision for the school, in an interview with HT post her appointment, she had shared that they were on the lookout for affiliation prospects with other institutions, as well as a hunt to fill the 50% vacant faculty positions in the university. However, after one year , while MoUs have been signed with various state institutions, the problem of faculty still remains.“We have begun integrating courses with other institutions and recently signed an MoU with IIT for introducing teaching on how to merge digitisation with music. These will begin once the planning stages are through. As for permanent faculty members, we trying to bring in more qualified instructors for our students,” said Srishti Dhaun, registrar.
As of now, positions of retiring staffers have not been refilled since 2005, including teaching, non-teaching and office staff. Of a total of 107 staff positions, 52 positions are vacant, 25 of which ought to have been filled by teaching staff. The last cycle of successful recruitments for permanent staffers was in 2005, according to former registrar of Bhatkhande Tuhin Dwivedi. The fresh recruitment process was supposed to have been completed around April 2023.
Bhatkhande has largely stuck to instruction in Indian classical styles and instruments, with four departments namely – dance, vocals, instrumentals and percussion – with independent streams under each with bachelors and masters degrees in performing arts. BSU has a 4-year Bachelor’s Programme in performing arts, and a 2-year Masters’ and a PhD Programme in the same. As for diploma courses, alongside four full-time 2-year diploma courses (Praveshika, Parichaya, Prabuddha and Prangat), the university also provides the option for part time diplomas in dhrupad dhamar, thumri dadra, sugam sangeet, harmonium, folk dance, folk song and dholak.
While this appears to be a wide assortment, it is also very niche, say students. And with lack of faculty, the institution has been unable to widen the scope to include a wider variety of instruction in other classical styles as well. For example, when it comes to western classical music or contemporary dance, the university often invites guest experts to hold day or week-long workshops with the students, as part of their compulsory curriculum. The university was unable to share how many students were enrolled in the diploma courses, and how many in the full-time Bachelor’s programmes.
For example, the dance department has 264 students, as per the head of dance department Gyanendra Dutt. It is divided into four streams – Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Manipuri and folk dance. These subjects are taught by a total of 6 teachers, two of whom are permanent staffers and the other four guest or visiting faculty. With the highest number of takers in Kathak and Hindustani classical music, this too leaves each teacher with a vast number of students.
Similarly, the percussion department just about toes the line, with four teachers for approximately 100 students training in tabla, dholak and pakhawaj. A visiting faculty who preferred to remain anonymous said, “Each teacher (permanent faculty members) also has to guide PhD students in their research. It becomes tough to manage classes and research scholars simultaneously when there are so many students.” Last year, the number of students at Bhatkhande was close to 1600.
NUMBER-CRUNCH
(Department wise breakup of sanctioned posts and employed teachers)
Total number of sanctioned posts – 25 (only professors, assistant and associate professors; not including accompanists and other teaching assistants)
No. of permanent staffers currently employed – 9
No. of guest staffers currently employed – 10
Dance Department
Sanctioned posts – 7
No. of teachers currently employed – 5 (3 guest and 2 permanent)
Instrumental Department
Sanctioned posts – 7
No. of teachers currently employed – 3 (2 guest and 1 permanent)
Percussion Department
Sanctioned posts – 4
No. of teachers currently employed – (1 guest and 2 permanent)
Vocal Department
Sanctioned posts – 7
No. of teachers currently employed – 8 (4 guest and 4 permanent)
Credit: Source link