Bangalore University is considered to be one of the premier institutes in the country when talking about size and status of general colleges in India. The hype and hoopla surrounding the college has been much talked about in the academic circles for long. Even the college itself as well as the citizens of tech-city Bangalore feel pride in bashing about the university’s unique stature.
But recently the college’s reputation hit a rough patch owing to the failing state of academic results throughout the university. The gradually deteriorating academic feats of the students have raised many an eyebrow questioning the credibility and rationale behind the much hyped status of the establishment.
The institution has completed its 50 years of existence but without much achievement to flaunt in the academic sphere. Veterans are upset with the continued dismal show of the university lamenting the falling grandeur of the university’s once admired status. They have expressed their anguish in frustration on observing that the academic developments in other universities are on the rise while Bangalore University is perennially slumping downhill.
In the BA course, the last decade did not witness a single year where the passing percentage was more than half of the total number of students enrolled in the course. It is only in this year that the university broke the jinx with a passing percentage of 68% in BA. Last year, the percentage was stuttering at an abysmally low 39% which itself made a dubious record in the entire academic history of the college. The average passing percentage for the last 10 years has been 42.6% which heralds the plight of academics in the university.
A decade ago in BSc the passing percentage was as high as 80.77% which sadly now lingers around the 50% mark. Last year the passing percentage in BSc was 50.61% which rose by 7% this year to take the tally to 57.61% thus showing an increase of 7% in numbers. Ironically science still scores a touch better than arts courses in terms of average passing percentage when calculated for the past decade. In commerce too, the passing percentage is a mere 55.59% while the lowest score in this course is 45% recorded two years ago.
But the real shame came for the university in the form of its much coveted Bachelor of Law Programme. The statistics in this course will even put the nation’s top worst performers feel proud about themselves. The years 2004 and 2010 saw a passing percentage of a mere 18% which astounded one and all leaving them flabbergasted with disbelief. The average passing percentage is though a tad higher and stands at 34%. Interestingly last year the percentage was higher than the average as it stood at an “impressive” 39.92%.
“We are aware of the current problem in the university. We intend to give extra classes to slow leaning UG and PG for which many colleges will be providing them with the benefits,” said B T Gowda, VC Bangalore University.
The only commendable feat achieved by the university is the excellent performance of the girls in almost all quarters. Arts, science, commerce and management courses have had girls scoring better than boys by a wide margin. This is the sole consolation for the university which otherwise has hardly anything academic to boast about.