Mangaluru: The ongoing undergraduate classes of Mangalore University (MU) will be extended for one extra month to help students from govt first-grade colleges (GFGC), who were affected due to the delay in the appointment of guest faculty. All GFGCs, where more than 50% of the teaching staff are guest faculty, have not been able to complete the syllabus as their appointment was delayed.Speaking during the second academic council meeting of MU on Thursday, vice-chancellor PL Dharma said that the decision to extend the ongoing semester for another month comes after the department of higher education’s directive. This will not only apply to MU, but across all 32 state universities this academic year.As per the academic calendar of the ongoing first, third, and fifth semesters of MU, the semester was supposed to end in the second week of Nov, followed by end-of-semester examinations. “As per the revised calendar of events, the end-of-semester examination will start from Dec 29 and is expected to finish by the end of Jan. The next semester will commence in Feb,” he said.The changes in the academic calendar of events have caused inconvenience to four constituent colleges of MU, aided and private colleges under it. Dharma said that all these colleges started classes on time with the availability of teaching staff. They were able to complete the syllabus on time. “They (management) are unhappy and have questioned us why they too need to suffer, and requested us to hold an examination for them. However, I have informed them that it is the decision of the govt and they have to adhere to it,” he said.Since colleges other than GFGCs will finish the syllabus in the stipulated time, they have decided to give one month of study or revision holidays to the students. This will result in good preparation for the examination. The extension for a month will result in a financial burden on the colleges. One of the college heads said that they will now have to pay one month’s additional salary to the staff. Dharma said that the guest teaching faculty of MU’s constituent colleges have been informed that they will not be paid for one month, which will be declared as study holidays.Meanwhile, students and teaching staff from GFGCs expressed happiness over the extension.
