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The story of the establishment of Andhra Pradesh Open University is a fascinating one. It is an interesting case study in public administration of how a proposal to set up a public institution receives a set back if there is no general public demand for it or if government policy making bodies do not evince interest in it. It also throws light on how a proposal is processed with lightning speed, if the head of the government takes interest in it.
Established in 1982, the Andhra Pradesh Open University (APOU), now called Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Open University (Dr. BRAOU), was the first full-fledged open university to be set up in India. Prior to this, a number of conventional universities had been organizing correspondence courses in the country. In the state of Andhra Pradesh itself, four large universities (Osmania University, Andhra University, Sri Venkateswara University and Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University) offered correspondence courses in a number of disciplines. While these distance education programmes were already being offered in the state, the state government decided to establish an open university and it was a chance factor that led to its establishment.
Prior to the establishment of the APOU, there were at least two proposals, one at the national level and the other at state level, to set up an open university in India. As early as 1973, there was a national seminar which discussed the idea of establishing an open university in India but this idea did not take root. A few years later, the government of West Bengal showed an interest in setting up an open university but there was no progress. There was, however, some interest in the country in the concept of an open university. The educational planners were mainly influenced by the success of the Open University in the United Kingdom (UKOU). There were stories that Britain had introduced an innovation in higher education by using the print materials, as well as the radio, television, video and audio cassettes. The two aspects of the UKOU which impressed the educational administrators in India were:
Provision of access to higher education to all those who, for a variety of reasons, could not enter the conventional system; and The high quality of the instructional materials.
If this was the case in the U.K., it was felt that, in a vast country like India, there was even a greater need to have an open university.
The credit for establishing the first open university in the country must go to the government of Andhra Pradesh and it happened because of an accidental factor. In 1978, when I was working as Vice Chancellor of Osmania University, I attended a meeting held by the then Education Minister of the State. After discussing the items on the agenda, the Minister expressed serious concern for providing access to more people to higher education. He felt that very few people were able to go to colleges and universities in the state and there was a pressure for starting more and more colleges. He was of the view that in a democracy, the government could not resist pressures for establishing more institutions of higher education and widening access to higher education. It meant starting more and more colleges and universities but the government did not have the resources to start such institutions. It was a dilemma which most governments in the country were facing and they did not know how to meet the challenge. After
the formal meeting, the minister and I adjourned for a separate discussion. When the minister continued the same discussion, I suggested that the government could think of using distance education, more particularly the open university mode, to solve some of the problems faced by the government. While correspondence courses were in existence, they were regarded as poor cousins of the formal system and many people did not take them seriously; this form of instruction was considered sub-standard. When I mentioned the UKOU, the Minister became curious and wanted to know more about it. In 1978, my own knowledge of the open university system in the world was not very extensive. On the basis of my little reading about the UKOU, and also some information about the German, the Thai, and the Pakistan open universities, I explained the concept to the minister. He was greatly impressed by the idea.
A few weeks later, I went to the United Kingdom to attend a seminar at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. When the minister came to know about my visit, he called me to say that I should visit the UKOU and give a report on its working to the government. The telephone conversation was followed by a formal letter from the government. In view of this development, I promptly got in touch with the British Council in India and requested them to help me in visiting the UKOU. Though the time was very short, the British Council very generously agreed to my request and made arrangements for the visit. I spent two days at Milton Keynes, met a number of people and visited various offices and work places of the university and collected the relevant literature. Based on the discussions with the people in the Open University and my own study of the literature given to me, I prepared a brief report on the UKOU and sent it to the minister. He showed keen interest in the report and became a great enthusiast
for the open university idea. Since it was a new concept which was not known to many people, the minister discussed the idea with the concerned people in his own government and also at the national level. There was virtually no support for the idea, but it took about two years for the minister to say that he was not successful. I was then informed about the negative response from the government.
In view of the minister's failure to get support from the government for the idea, the issue was closed as far as the government was concerned. But the idea of providing distance education through an open university had powerful appeal. Therefore, some of us in Osmania University thought of an alternative approach. Instead of setting up an open university, we felt we would start an open learning college within the framework of Osmania University. It would be an autonomous college and would have freedom to design its own courses and conduct examinations. There would be a board of management of which the Vice-Chancellor would be the chairman and a full-time person would function as director. It would have all the autonomy to manage its academic programmes. For all practical purposes, it would function like a university, except that the degree would be given by Osmania University, because legally it was a part of the university. I discussed this idea with my colleagues in the university and placed the proposa
l before the syndicate (executive council) of the university. The syndicate unanimously approved the idea of setting up an Open Learning College. Armed with the approval of the syndicate we went ahead, and a small committee of academics was entrusted with the task of preparing a blueprint for setting up the proposed college.
Meanwhile, we approached Mr. Greville Rumble of the UKOU through its Open Learning Corporation to prepare a consultancy report. He graciously agreed and completed it in record time. The Rumble report was examined by our committee which made a few changes and submitted a plan of action. Again the committee's report was taken to the syndicate which approved it enthusiastically. While the report was under preparation, I happened to meet the Education Minister and told him that we were thinking of setting up an Open Learning College in Osmania University and if we needed some financial assistance he should help us. He agreed to consider it favourably. The project was ready and the college was to be launched in a few months. Meanwhile, we were looking for a dynamic academic for appointment as director of the proposed college.
While these preparations were on there was a major change in the political scene. The then Chief Minister, Mr. T. Anjaih, was replaced by Mr. Bhavanam Venkataram, the former Education Minister who had supported the original open university proposal. A day or two after he assumed charge, I called on him to congratulate him, as is customary. After greeting him, when I was leaving the room, the Chief Minister asked me about the open university project. I told him about the progress we had made to set up an Open Learning College. His reaction was that we should stop the establishment of an Open Learning College, for he was in favour of setting up a full-fledged open university. The idea was abandoned earlier because there was no support in the government. Now that he was the Chief Minister, however, he thought that the idea should be pursued and implemented. In order to carry forward the idea, he said that the government would appoint a committee of experts, with me as chairman. The only condition was that the
report should be prepared in two to three months. I agreed to this condition readily because the spade work done for setting up the Open Learning College would be useful to the new university also. All that we needed to do was to prepare a cogent report with financial estimates. True to the Chief Minister's word, a government order was issued appointing a committee.
The committee met several times and finalized the report, a part of which was prepared by a few colleagues in the university. The report was submitted to the government in August, 1982. As chairman of the committee, I handed over the report to the Chief Minister with a request that expeditious action might be taken on the recommendations. I was only hoping that this report should not meet the same fate which many government reports experience. I expected a lot of delay in the government—about eight months for its approval. To my surprise, the government acted very fast on the report and the Chief Secretary (head of the civil service) got in touch with me regarding the next steps to be taken. The government desired that I should prepare a draft bill for the establishment of the university so that it could be introduced in the Legislative Assembly which was in session. Hardly any time was given—I was asked to prepare the bill in about a week. It had to be processed by several departments such as ed
ucation, law, planning, finance and general administration. It also required the approval of the government of India.
In view of the interest of the Chief Minister, however, all the formalities were completed with lightning speed. Thereafter, the bill was introduced in the assembly. Since it was an educational bill, it tended to be non-controversial. In order to get the approval of the assembly, it appears, the Chief Minister talked to leaders of the various political parties for their support. Thus, when the bill was introduced in the lower house by the Education Minister, a discussion followed for a few hours and there was general support for the proposed novel university. The bill was passed the same day. Next day, it was introduced in the upper house where it was also passed the same day. On the following day, it received the assent of the State Governor. After two days, the Open University was formally inaugurated at Nagarjuna Sagar, by Mr. Zail Singh, the then President of India, who was on a visit to the state.
The Chief Minister was of the view that the new university should be set up at Nagarjuna Sagar, which is the site of a multipurpose river valley project about 100 miles from Hyderabad. There was hardly any infrastructure at this place, except for the small township which had grown up to look after the operations of the hydroelectric dam, a high school and a junior college. Communication facilities were poor. The only advantage was that there were a couple of semi-permanent buildings put up to accommodate the staff when the project was under construction. Several of these buildings were already occupied by some department or other. But the Chief Minister was keen that it should be located at this place. The rumours had it that it was a part of his constituency or very close to it.
As scheduled, the new President formally laid the foundation stone for the establishment of the Andhra Pradesh Open University at an impressive ceremony arranged by the state government. What was interesting about the inauguration was that it took place without anyone being formally appointed to the university; there was no Vice-Chancellor or any other staff. The Chief Minister was unable to make up his mind about the appointment of the first Vice-Chancellor. There were pressures from several aspirants. Consequently, the government remained indecisive on the appointment of not only the Vice-Chancellor but also on other important functionaries like the Registrar and the Finance Officer. In the meantime, within about eight weeks of inauguration of the new University, Bhavanam Venkatram was replaced by Mr. K. Vijayabhaskar Reddy, as the chief minister of the state. We understand Mr. Bhavanam Venkataram considered the establishment of the Andhra Pradesh Open University as one of his important achievements as C
hief Minister.
The new Chief Minister, who was also in favour of the Open University, very promptly took a decision to appoint the first Vice-Chancellor. His preference was for an experienced person who had familiarity with the open university system. About this time, I was being sounded out for two positions in Delhi-the Secretary of the Association of Indian Universities and the Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University. In fact, I had already received the appointment order for the former and there were strong indications for the second. When I informed the Chief Minister about these developments, he advised me to decline both offers. Within a few days, I was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor of the first open university in India.
From its inception, the university was destined to face rough weather. The university was established by the Congress government in August 1982, and as fate would have it, the Congress Party was defeated at the polls in December, 1982. The newly formed political party, called the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), headed by a very popular film actor, N.T. Rama Rao, (NTR) came to power. NTR acted in movies playing mythological roles such as Krishna and Rama but he had never before been in politics. He had formed the party only a few months earlier and was able to sweep the polls mainly because of the disenchantment of the voters with the Congress Party. Since the TDP had come to power for the first time, they started looking critically at all the institutions which were set up during the last few months of the Congress regime. In fact, the Chief Minister declared that he would wind up all those institutions which were set up by the Congress Party during the previous year. Even though APOU was not included in the lis
t of institutions to be wound up, there was a lot of uncertainty about its future.
As if this was not enough, a senior civil servant who was earlier very enthusiastic about the establishment of the university had turned against it under the new government. He wanted a certain favour to be done which could not be done in the manner he wanted. This civil servant was known for vindictiveness and partisan behaviour and he was adding fuel to the fire. The result was that, one fine morning, we received a government order saying that the headquarters of the university would be at Nagarjuna Sagar and that it should be implemented with immediate effect. This was indeed a great blow to the university. First, because at Nagarjuna Sagar, where there were no educational institutions, the university would face insurmountable problems. Second, the academics who were working in other universities and who had agreed to join this University were reluctant to go to Nagarjuna Sagar. The place hardly had any infrastructure for an open university. It was felt that this was an indirect way of killing the unive
rsity.
The matter was discussed with two people who had access to the Chief Minister. One of them was told that, if the new government was not interested in the open university, they should be honest enough to wind it up. It appeared that this feeling was conveyed to the Chief Minister. One fine morning, I was asked to meet the Chief Minister. For any serious discussion, the Chief Minister used to give appointments early in the morning, say around 5 or 6 a.m. When I called on him, he raised the issue of the location of APOU. I explained to him that it might be all right to locate a conventional university at a place like Nagarjuna Sagar, for such a university would have a large number of students and staff and did not depend on other educational resources. On the other hand, an open university depended on the educational resources of other institutions and it did not have students on the campus. It would have to use new educational technologies to reach the students who are scattered at different places. I told h
im that such a university made extensive use of communication technologies like radio, television, audio and video cassettes.
The mention of these technologies, particularly audio and video cassettes, aroused the curiosity of the Chief Minister who, as an actor, knew the potential of such media. He enquired how the university proposed to use such technologies. When it was explained that students scattered in different places would be reached by means of a multimedia instructional system, he was greatly impressed by the projected use of modern communication technologies for higher education. In fact, he went to the extent of saying that all universities should use such technologies. Then he himself agreed that there were no facilities at Nagarjuna Sagar for the production of such materials. I told him that it was for this reason that the committee on the Establishment of an Open University in Andhra Pradesh had suggested that the proper place for the location of the university was one of the big cities like Hyderabad Vijayawada and Vishakapatnam. He quickly grasped the point and sent for the senior officer who had been taking an u
nhelpful attitude towards the university. The Chief Minister ordered that the headquarters of the university should be shifted to Hyderabad and the government should provide accommodation for it. Unhelpful as he was, the above mentioned senior officer tried to explain why he wanted the open university located at Nagarjuna Sagar. It was too late for the officer to convince the Chief Minister who, by then, had already become an instant votary of the open university system. From then on the Chief Minister became a great supporter of the open university system. This was indeed a turning point in the development of the university.
Our problems did not, however, end there. A certain journalist was writing articles in his newspaper attacking the concept of the open university. His argument was that there were too many universities in the state and they were producing a large number of unemployable graduates. An open university would throw open the doors to a large number of people who, after obtaining degrees, would demand jobs. Taking advantage of the change of government, he also attacked the university as an institution set up by the Congress government. No amount of clarification from the university could convince the journalist as he continued to attack the university at a time when it was vulnerable and had yet to take off. Sensing a threat to the fledgling institution, I thought the head of the government, the Chief Minister, should be informed about the development. An appointment was fixed and I called on him. I told him that a few people were opposing the concept of an open university and they were saying it was a waste. The
timing of the meeting was propitious for the university, for the Chief Minister had already become a strong supporter of the concept. In reply, he said that there was nothing to worry about. He went further and said, "If the open university is a waste, my chief ministership is also a waste." This attitude of the Chief Minister was very encouraging Given this firm government support, we in the university could face the criticism with confidence.
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