Muzaffarpur, June 17: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has threatened Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bihar University to stop its annual grant for its failure to introduce the semester system in postgraduate and graduate courses simultaneously.

The UGC has warned that it could also stop the monetary assistance to the university under the 12th Five Year Plan, scheduled to start in 2016. The commission issued a series of “hard-hitting” circulars to the Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bihar University describing the latter as extremely careless and negligent in its approach towards academics.

The UGC has been consistently asking the university to embrace the semester system in postgraduate and graduate courses for the past five years. But the university has been neglecting the issue. It has not introduced the semester system yet.

Last year, the university had assured the UGC of introducing the semester system from 2011. But it is now shying away from the issue citing acute shortage of teachers in the university.

This inordinate delay, despite repeated reminders from the UGC, has shown the university in a poor light.

The proctor of the university, Ashok Kumar Srivastava, told The Telegraph that the university had taken a serious note of the failure to adhere to the directives of the UGC to introduce the semester system.

Srivastava added that the university was exploring the ways to introduce the semester system at the earliest.

“The university would introduce the semester system but it is plagued with certain deficiencies and shortcomings, particularly of the dwindling strength of teachers,” the proctor said.

The university has also failed to prepare and update the curriculum of the graduate courses keeping in view the implementation of the semester system.

The Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bihar University is in a fix over the implementation of the semester system and on how to deal with the shortage of teachers in the graduate courses if the semester system was implemented.

After the UGC issued the “hard-hitting” circular to the university on the issue of implementing the semester system and the subsequent threat to stop its annual grants, the acting vice-chancellor of Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bihar University, Rajendra Mishra, seemed confused over the entire issue.

“The university is in a fix over the implementation of the semester system in the graduate courses in the wake of the acute shortage of teachers. The UGC has stopped a grant of Rs 11 crore under the 11th Five Year Plan. It has only released Rs 3 crore out of Rs 14 crore under the plan so far,” the VC said.

He added that the university was planning to introduce the semester system in the postgraduate and graduate courses after consistent pressure from the UGC. The university has referred the matter to the state government seeking an approval before introducing the system in the graduate courses.