The University of Calicut

The University of Calicut is one of the earlier universities commenced in Kerala and REC of our times was affiliated to this University and somewhere a piece of good fortune for the students of our times. The University is situated at a place called Tenhipalam some 30kms from Calicut town. Calicut is called Kozhikode in the vernacular. There were two other engineering colleges affiliated to this University and they were College of Engineering Trichur  and NSS college Palghat. I have not visited these two colleges and are also some of the engineering colleges started in Kerala earlier on.

The University of Calicut buildings look impressive for any casual traveler who takes the highway that runs along side the University and now to take note that at the back end of our education existed this monolith is somewhere exhilarating. For me especially exposed to the education system of Kerala all of a sudden having had my formative education under a totally different system in Bangalore found it essential to re-position myself vis-a-vis the demands of this University. But I give full points to this University and what it stands for.

There was an awful practice at this university when we were first year students...postponement of exams. This errant phenomena was arrested by Dr. S U Pillai when he took over as Principal in 1983 and thereafter exams were conducted in clockwork precision with no postponement whatsoever..Dr. S U Pillai deserves credit for this.

Now REC being re framed as NIT and being autonomous may have no links with this university so to say and may be missing the prop that this establishment had earlier provided. I am told an engineering college in its own right has been created by Calicut University called CUIET as a replacement for the erstwhile REC and I am told is an institution to reckon with. This is a positive development. It would be very worthwhile for me to point out that Dr.S U Pillai had vehemently campaigned for academic autonomy for REC Calicut in 1983 and was fiercely committed to this goal. There was an open house discussion in the auditorium of REC and even I spoke for a few minutes on why academic autonomy should be granted to REC. REC has indeed become academically autonomous in its revised version as NIT.

I must have visited University of Calicut few times, first in 1984 with my class mate Om Prakash Jha..I dont remember for what reason. The Pareeksha Bhavan used to be on the left side of the road as we approach the University from Calicut and was a small building. The present structure within the fold of the University campus must have been occupied in 1985. During these times there was only one photocopying machine that too down the road and worked on the older form of exposure technology and not the automatic ones we see today. I had visited the University for a non-academic purpose once in 1985 for some function relating to Sports in the REC college bus and on our return journey had given P T Usha and  O M Nambiar a lift in our college bus.

What I like about the University of Calicut is the impressive buildings..At least I found them impressive. I think the University by itself must not just be a Pareeksha Bhavan and must focus on researching subjects,the examination and its patterns, and take a more proactive approach may be in supervising the educational institutes under its fold which it must be doing with increased vigour now and attempt to personally know every single student under its rolls and their aspirations.