Mysore/Mysuru: With the Government establishing Universities at District-level, admissions to the over century-old University of Mysore (UoM), which is known for its  reputation, has dropped drastically this academic year. Prior to the establishment of District level Universities, UoM had jurisdiction that covered Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar.

In the previous year (2022-23), as many as 36,000 students had enrolled with the UoM for various UG and PG courses. But this year (2023-24), UoM has recorded an admission of only 26,000 students, which means a drop of 10,000 students.

UoM Vice-Chancellor Prof. N.K. Lokanath said that earlier, the University had 232 colleges under it. But now it has control over only 111 colleges. Pointing out that regular teaching and non-teaching staff are paid salaries by the Government, he said that, however, University has to pay the salaries of guest faculty and outsourced employees.

Pointing out that since the establishment of District level Universities, the jurisdiction of UoM has been limited to just Mysuru district, Prof. Lokanath said, this has resulted in the drop in admissions, with the University recording 10,000 lesser number of students as compared to the previous academic year.

Continuing, he said that currently, UoM has only 245 permanent teaching faculty, while there are as many as 420 vacancies put together all the departments, which needs to be filled up. Stating that the University is very much dependent on guest faculty, who number 900 as of now, he said that the vacancies has caused difficulty in maintaining standard quality of teaching, which UoM is known for decades. He further said that UoM’s revenues too had recorded a sharp decline due to less admissions and the Government must provide more grants to UoM.