Shortage of space dogs PU's DDE

PATNA: Patna University (PU) has been running a 'parallel university' for the last 37 years. And, this self-sufficient 'parallel university' has, of late, assumed a larger canvas than its parent university.
PU's Directorate of Distance Education (DDE), formerly known as the Institute of Correspondence Courses, has got over 15,000 students on its roll, whereas the combined strength of all the 11 constituent colleges and 32 postgraduate departments of PU is hardly 12,000.
The DDE offers three-year degree courses in arts and commerce, besides postgraduate diploma courses in library and information science, journalism and mass communication, financial management, operations management and marketing management. Surprisingly, all the activities of DDE are being managed with only 46 employees, whereas PU is facing difficulty in managing its affairs even with 1,200 employees. The DDE is not only completely self-dependent, but also extends financial help to the fund-starved PU at the time of crisis.
This 'milch cow' of PU, however, faces an acute shortage of space for running its show smoothly. At present, located in a cramped portion of the old library building of PU, the DDE has hardly got any space to accommodate the huge rush of admission seekers. Even the 27 counters set up by the DDE fail to cope with the demands of students. It has got no space for holding contact classes and conduct examinations, said DDE director Prashant Dutt. Consequently, all the DDE students appear for the university examinations along with the regular students.
As the space at present available in different colleges is hardly sufficient to accommodate even the regular students of PU, the authorities face a Herculean task in finding space for the DDE students. The colleges are forced to suspend classes during the entire period of examinations.
Dutt said that the space problem may be resolved by shifting PU works department to some other place, may be at Saidpur, and the entire building be handed over to the DDE. The University Press may also be shifted to Saidpur. He said that some more job-oriented courses might be introduced under DDE if it gets sufficient space. NSUI leader Varun Kumar Sharma said that DDE must start B.Ed course keeping in view the growing demand for this job-oriented academic programme.