Tamil University Facing Fund Crunch

Thanjavur: Tamil University, Thanjavur, established in 1981 by the then Chief Minister M G Ramachandran for the advancement of learning and research in Tamil language, literature and culture, is facing severe financial constraint and shortage of staff as the subsequent governments had turned a ‘deaf ear’ to its woes.

Through the idea of creating a separate university for Tamil language was mooted as early as 1925 by the then scholars, it took a concrete shape only in 1981, thanks to the initiatives taken by MGR. He announced at the Fifth World Tamil conference at Madurai that a university exclusively to promote high level research in Tamilology would be set up at Thanjavur as the place had been the embodiment of art and culture for centuries together

Subsequently, Tamil University was established on a sprawling 1000 acre site on Trichy-Thanjavur Road on September 15, 1981, on the birth anniversary of the late Chief Minister CN Annadurai.

Over the years, the university started spreading its wings for the cause of the student community, in 1992, it started conducting academic research by offering M Phil and Ph.D. programmes. In 2002, post-graduate courses in arts and humanities were introduced and in 2005 PG courses in sciences were also started.

When contracted, Vice-Chancellor C Subramaniam clarified that the 60 non-teaching staff, who had been serving since 1982 – 83 till 2004 – 05 and 16 employees serving in the press, were, all on a sudden, declared unapproved by the officials of Local Fund and Audit Department thus forcing the varsity to resort to diverting the varsity to resort to diverting funds on paying their salaries, “We have now sent a proposal to the government again seeking approval for these posts. Declaring the already approved basic reason for the weak financial position of the varsity,” Subramaniam said.

As regards vacancies, he said that the government had accorded sanction for 31 posts of lecturers and interview had been completed for 15 posts. The government has also sanctioned 24 posts of research assistants and they would be considered as lecturers, he added.

Despite these constraints there is a silver lining too. For the first time in the history of the varsity, campus interview was arranged last year, in which as many as 35 candidates got placed, while 52 got Jobs this year. Moreover, the varsity is offering 29 courses through distance education and the Publication Section has so far published 394 books in varsity disciplines.

Tamil University Facing Fund Crunch