MU: On reaching a milestone :: Stressing on quality and quality
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 07, 2025 -
Manipur University has certainly come a long way from the days when it was a PG Centre of JNU with just 10 departments and three schools of studies in 1980.
Fast forward to 2025 and today MU stands tall as a centre of learning with 47 departments, one constituent college and 120 affiliated colleges.
This is the statistics that can be gleaned from the address of Vice Chancellor of the varsity on the occasion of its 45th foundation day on June 5 and apart from the figures spelt out, what stands out and should be food for thought is the line, 'Although the university has produced a large number of students, there is a need to emphasise on the quality of the students'.
Read this line with the observation 'every stakeholder should introspect and work collectively so as to bring about quality'.
The observation of the Vice Chancellor cannot be truer and this is where all concerned should try to sincerely understand the choice of the word, 'stakeholder' while calling on all the concerned to take MU to the path of excellence.
Manipur in sum is the collective stakeholder of MU and a brief look back at its history is crucial in coming anywhere near understanding why the varsity should continue to be bracketed in the band of 151 to 200 in the National Institutional Ranking Framework ranking which comes under the Union Ministry of Education.
Gauhati University by contrast comes in at a healthy rank of 40 while North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) comes in at 80, a sharp drop from the 60th position in 2022 and 59th in 2021.
Rightfully the Vice Chancellor did talk about the prime importance of the quality of students and while the parameter for assessing the quality of students may differ between the world of academia and what the world perceives things, it stands that a university is there to just about give the finishing touch to a product which has been in the making from the school days.
With numerous universities, including MU going in for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), how many of the top scorers in the said test actually opt for MU as their first or second or even third choice?
This is a question which MU must have started asking itself a long time back. And coming back to the observation that MU, like any other university, is there to give the finishing touch to the students, how many colleges and institutions of higher learning have been able to actually groom a student in such a way that the final product comes out well?
A question that should provoke the minds and thoughts of anyone who sees education beyond the classrooms.
This is where one is brought back to the question, a question raised many times in this column-why do so many students make a beeline for colleges and universities outside Manipur once they cross their Class XII stage?
This is where one has to look beyond the college, the classroom and the infrastructure of a college but take a look at whether the right environment has been created for students to pursue their academics or studies.
The answer should be obvious to all, if one looks back sincerely. Young students pulled out from their classrooms in connection with any issue, which should be dealt by the adults of the society is a given here.
When school children are made to come out, line up, hold banners and posters and at times face the water cannons from the police, then it certainly does not amount to creating the right atmosphere for the young students.
This is precisely one reason why many parents and guardians feel compelled to send their children outside for their further studies.
And examples are galore and a look back at the past, including the distant and not so distant past, will surely say something profound about how students have been made to face issues which should be left to the adults of society.
For parents and guardians who have the means, sending their children outside Manipur for their higher education should not be much of a problem, but not all parents are moneyed or are in the position to comfortably send their children outside.
Quality of students, this was what the VC of MU talked about just the other day, but let Manipur not forget that a university is there to give the finishing touch, while the core material is moulded and given life and thrust at the school level.
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