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The concept of an open university and of distance education was new to many people including several academics. They were expressing doubts and were even cynical about a university aspiring to provide access to higher education for a very large number of people. Some were outright critical on the ground that higher education should not be extended to all and sundry. Others had genuine doubts because they thought that: (a) giving access to large numbers of people would add to unemployment in the state; and (b) the quality of education through the distance mode would not be as good as in the conventional system. Therefore, I took advantage of every available forum to explain the concept. I addressed several seminars and gatherings, particularly of academics, and wrote articles in the newspapers. Some of the academics, who had otherwise agreed to join the university, were having second thoughts about joining the university because they did not know what shape the university would take or what future was in st
ore for it. So, the work in the university was started with the help of a small number of academic staff who were taken on secondment from other universities and also of a few retired persons.
Even though the Chief Minister had directed that the university should be provided with accommodation and other facilities, it was not smooth sailing for the university again because of the senior civil servant's hostility. It was an uphill task to get government accommodation for the university. Fortunately, another senior administrator in charge of accommodation was helpful and a government building was given to the university. In fact, under the previous regime, several large government buildings had been shown which would have solved the accommodation problem of the university for a long time to come, but that was when the Congress government was in power and the civil servant was favourably disposed towards the university. But in the new set-up, whenever such a suitable building was shown, some hurdle or other was put in the way and he had seen to it that the building was not given to the university.
There were several such pinpricks because of the hostile attitude of the senior civil servant. In Indian administration, the bureaucracy holds the key to power and a hostile bureaucrat has all the tricks in the world to undo a political decision—the weapons in his armoury being inexhaustible. Predictably, we received yet another near deadly blow front the government. One fine morning, we received a government order saying that the university should start offering courses from the academic year, 1983. Anyone who is familiar with distance education systems knows that it takes about two to three years to prepare course materials. We were starting the university from scratch and there were no physical resources which could be used. We in the university were really shocked to find that the government bureaucracy was so unhelpful. From the government order, it was very clear at whose instance this order was issued. There was no point in protesting against it. We had to prepare ourselves to show that the uni
versity was going to commence its academic activities from the academic year, 1983. This put tremendous pressure on our skeleton academic staff and also on the outside consultants who were helping us. It meant that they would work day and night to show the government that the university was serious about the deadline imposed on it. We knew that it was impossible to prepare all the course materials in such a short time. But we had to devise the strategy to save the university and our reputations.
APOU was not only a new university but also a new type of university. Therefore, the government did not know how to finance it. There were no models in the country and the UKOU pattern was not of much help in this respect. It used to be said that the UKOU was like a Rolls Royce car among distance teaching universities. In Asia, there were Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in Pakistan and Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU) in Thailand. But there were hardly any materials readily available about these institutions to help us. The bureaucracy did not know how to handle this subject, and it was also difficult for us to give any viable examples. There were several rounds of discussions in the government. The report on the establishment had made some tentative calculations which became the basis for discussion to decide financial assistance.
After a good deal of correspondence and discussion, we told the Education Department that they should look at the budget of the smallest university in the state and give a similar amount to the APOU. We also said that with the smallest budget we would educate the largest number of students. This approach clicked very well with them.
The university proposed to offer undergraduate programmes in Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Science. In addition it planned for a Diploma Course in Public Accounting to train government and quasi-government employees.
In view of the very short time available it was a problem to start the undergraduate programmes. Fortunately the new pattern of course system recommended by the University Grants Commission helped us. This referred to three levels in undergraduate programmes—foundation courses, core courses and specialized and applied courses. Since it was a year-long system, core and applied courses would come in the second and third years. In the first year, we were to prepare only four courses as part of the foundation courses. This gave a great relief to all of us in the university.
We adopted the course team system which consisted of writers, a language editor and a co-ordinator. The co-ordinator was a member of the faculty but the others were drawn from other universities. In fact, a large number of experts were from other universities in the state and outside. All of them were new to the distance education system. In view of the government order that the courses should be started from the 1983 academic year, there was not time to arrange training programmes for these faculty. They were, therefore, asked to look at some of the course material produced by the other open universities, particularly the UKOU. Though the model followed was mainly that of the UKOU, we also looked at the course material of AIOU and STOU.
The organization and the management of the new university were to be different from the conventional universities. Generally, the policy makers desire that the pattern of management should be similar to that of conventional universities for any deviation would create problems for them in other universities. Therefore, management of the open university was made more or less similar to the other conventional universities. At the top is the Chancellor, while the Vice-Chancellor is the Chief Executive of the university. There are the policy making bodies like the Executive Committee, the Planning Board, the Faculties, the Finance Committee and the Board of Studies. Within this traditional organization a few changes were made in the open university system. For example, study centres were set up all over the state. It was felt that the study centres were absolutely essential for the successful functioning of the university. The idea was that there should be a place where the students could meet the academics and
also make use of library facilities. The university started with 28 study centres housed in existing colleges. We persuaded the management of colleges to give us some space to set up these study centres. There was not much difficulty but in some cases there was reluctance on the part of the college management with the location of our study centres. In order to make them function smoothly, we associated the principal of each college with the study centre but with one of his colleagues being put in charge of management of the centre. He was designated as the co-ordinator.
While we did not face any difficulties in introducing the degree programmes at the undergraduate level, there was a lot of resistance for the introduction of professional courses in the curriculum. Recognizing the need for providing greater access to the programme in library science, we proposed to start a degree programme in it. There was a great demand for such a programme and it was welcomed by several people in the field. To give a shape to it, an expert committee was appointed which suggested the introduction of a bachelor's degree programme in library science. The pattern of courses was worked out in great detail with the help of senior professional staff and outside experts. This was opposed by the president of the association of libraries who felt that a professional programme like library science should not be introduced through the distance education mode. He openly opposed the progressive course. Our academic staff in charge of the course tried to convince him and explained how they were going t
o do it; but he would not be convinced. In view of the opposition, we tried to explain the nature of the programme to as many people as possible and finally the course was introduced. Interestingly, the person who had opposed the introduction of the course applied later for a professorship at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)! Obviously he had changed his views about distance education.
In the first year, 6,500 students were admitted of whom 35% were from metropolitan areas and others from all over the state. Next year the situation improved. The performance of the students was quite impressive in the first year as 52% passed the examination.
APOU being the first open university in the country attracted a lot of attention from all over the country. Several expert teams visited the university.
One of the important problems faced by the university was the recruitment of staff. People for senior positions, like professorships, came from the existing conventional universities, whereas, for positions of lectureships, teachers were drawn from the open market. A few of the staff were taken on secondment.
In the initial years, the main problem faced by the university was parity of esteem. There was doubt whether the degrees given by the university would be recognized by the other universities. In fact, some of them refused to recognize the degree of this university. It took some time to explain the distance education system to them. Later, with the establishment of IGNOU by the government of India, the concept of the open university received tremendous legitimacy. The doubting Thomases were silenced. I left the university after about two and a half years to set up IGNOU. I maintained regular contacts with APOU and in fact IGNOU and APOU established good rapport with each other.
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