UGC happy with visit to HPU-did we hear that right?

It was the visit of nine member expert committee of the University Grants Commission that did raise expectations of a better future for the University for the lot of students like me for the reports said that the Committee would ‘assess’ its performance. However, all what we heard were praises for the University and nothing else.

It was the same HPU which was making to the headlines just a week or two ago for the ruthless, bloody clashes between Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (AVBP) and Students Federation of India (SFI). Well, nothing new you would say for of course, HPU campus is famous for these clashes and can be compared to other hostile campuses like AMU.

The infrastructure of the university in comparison to PU or DU needs restructuring and improvisation. No wonders, why HPU sees a few or no foreign students at all instead of the advantage of the hill station. The campus doesn’t speak much a spark; neither the architecture is captivating enough. The new blocks that have come up are better but the rest of the buildings have small classrooms with almost no space for ventilation and bad lighting system. In spite of such drawbacks classes go on regularly in such rooms. The whole campus doesn’t speak of facilities for students to sit down except a few benches near the library. The rainy season creates havoc in and around HPU with no proper drainage system.

In fact the university campus must be larger and can be improvised on various grounds. There is not much of greenery inside the campus except a few trees, strikingly the campuses of DU or PU offers its students more gardens and green spaces to sit down and relax or even gossip the time away for that matter. Drinking water facility also lacks and there is no suitable canteen on the whole campus but a few shops which leave the students with no option but to go out.

The hostels offer a spectacular view of the mighty Himalayas but the inside scene is little dampening and stingy. Moreover, the university offers no hostel facility for undergraduate courses. An insider tells that the university lacks internet bandwidth for various departments with only 512 kbps for whole university. Other known fact about HPU is that instead of its having a website, the space isn’t updated regularly. The results of various courses are usually late and never declared on the website but uploaded after months of the declaration.

However, HPU has its own art and music departments, the auditorium suffers from various defects like an old stage, old music system and no new technical upgradations in order to make visual and sound system better. Even the seating facility cries for attention and proper arrangements.

Explains well why maximum of students prefer colleges outside for we all are getting used to teams visiting HPU for assessment of its performance and being ‘happy’ the way it has been.

Neha Chandok