In the wake of the turmoil Bangalore University (BU) has been facing, BU vice-chancellor N Prabhu Dev had appealed to the public to help him decide whether to go ahead with the Bangalore School of Economics or not. On Saturday he had released a letter to media, requesting the public to guide him on the issue.
Dev said he got many responses in a short span. He said a day after his request, he got about 30 mails and many calls regarding the matter.
“A majority of mails and calls show that people are concerned about the matter and want me to go ahead with the School of Economics. However, they suggest that it should be out of Bangalore University (under the UGC Act),” said Dev.
The vice-chancellor added that he would wait for another 10 days and then decide on the course of action to be taken, depending on the mails.
“After a decision has been taken, I will present the picture to Dr Sitaram Jindal,” he said.
“I decided to ask the public since there were different views on the school. The academic council, syndicate and others with vested interests, all of them had different viewpoints about the issue,” said Dev.
Three options
He had come up with three options. First, the School of Economics is administered by the BU. Second, the School of Economics comes under the ambit of the UGC Act, and finally, not going ahead with setting up such an institute.
The academic council of BU had, on May 3, 2011, approved the proposal introduced by the vice-chancellor to establish the Bangalore School of Economics (BSE) under the BU, with the aim to make it “a research centre dedicated to the discipline of economics as an institute of excellence with regional and global relevance”.
In this light, Dev said the School of Communication had taken a ‘backseat’. “Once the School of Economics is set up, the School of Communication will be looked into,” he said.
Earlier, when he had announced the school would be set up, Dev had said he wanted it to become a reality before he completes his term as V-C.
