Two-year-old Arunachal Pradesh University aims to be a tribal research hub, despite all odds

NEW DELHI: Arunachal Pradesh University (APU) is one of the most important universities to be set up in the past few years. Established in 2022, it remains the lone state government university in Arunachal Pradesh, as major developments had left the state without one for 15 years.

The first government university in the state, the erstwhile Arunachal University, was actually set up in 1984. However, it was later converted into a central university and renamed as Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) in 2007. Admissions were also open to students from across India leaving few seats for students from the state which already had very few higher education institutions.

“We didn’t have any state government university for a period of time when the rest of the country had many. Moreover, getting admission into a central university is tougher because it is open for all. For instance, many Assamese students who performed well in their undergraduate programme got seats in RGU, and many of our students were left out. Most students here cannot afford to join private universities or move to other states,” said Eli Doye, associate professor of tribal studies at APU.

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This is where APU becomes important. Although the university can admit only 100 or so students in each batch, the university provides hope for undergraduate students in Arunachal Pradesh who are otherwise left to look past the state for opportunities.

Despite insufficient infrastructure and faculty, especially in the science streams, the university authorities hope to expand the university to 40 departments within the next decade, take in more students and be a hub for tribal research.

Arunachal: Few government colleges

In Arunachal Pradesh, postgraduate courses were offered only in RGU and a few departments of the Jawaharlal Nehru College in Pasighat. Even now, there are only six private universities and around 20 government colleges in the state. In some places, there is only one government college for two or three districts. And all of these universities and colleges admit more students than their actual capacity. With thousands graduating each year, the state aims to fill at least a part of this gap with APU.

“RGU alone cannot satisfy the requirements of the state. There are thousands of students graduating every year…It is not possible for every parent to send their children to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata or even Assam. And even if they do, in most of these places hostels are not available. So, students will have to stay in rented accommodations. The intake capacity of the RGU is also very less – only 30-40 students per department. And private universities are not affordable for all. Hence, a state university was required,” said Narmi Darang, registrar, APU.

From the academic year of 2024-25, RGU is admitting students through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) PG which might further reduce seats for Arunachal Pradesh students as thousands from across the country will be applying to RGU. Moreover, there is the geographical challenge of reaching RGU as well.

“Although RGU is centrally located if you look at the map, it is in the western part of Arunachal. Here, transportation is really difficult - especially during monsoons – and is worse for students from border areas. Since APU is in the eastern part of Arunachal it can become a key centre here while RGU can be that of the western part of the state,”
said Darang.

That said, APU’s intake is limited. It houses 100 postgraduate students from five departments which are all functioning under the same administrative block that also houses the vice-chancellor and all non-academic staff. The government is expected to hand over one academic block by August.

If the academic block is not handed over before the next academic session, which starts late August, the university will have space constraints. It had also planned new departments in
mass communication, sociology, and English, but could not start for the same reason. APU has been granted Rs 20 crore under a central scheme that supports state institutions. The university plans to construct a girls’ and a boys’ hostel with it.

APU: Lack of faculty

APU is also finding it difficult to look for qualified faculty, especially in the science fields, because of which they could not start their maths and computer science departments. Two reasons are being cited for this – first, the lack of quality research among applicants and second, the dearth of science institutions in the state.

“We were also hoping to start departments in mathematics and computer science, but we couldn’t find the eligible faculty. Only one faculty turned up per department and we cannot start a department with such strength. So, these two departments have been kept in abeyance,” said Darang.

Arunachal Pradesh barely has any engineering institutes apart from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Arunachal Pradesh, which takes in students from across the country. It does not have any college focussed on science either. So, science students who are unable to get into NIT or the few colleges that have science courses are forced to shift to the arts stream.

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“Because of the lack of institutes, some of the students who graduate from science streams, and don’t get into the professional courses, go to the arts stream. We have only NIT and one other institute for engineering, then there is just one medical college. Students don’t have enough opportunities… we have to improve resources in technical and science education,” said Dani Kacha, president of Arunachal Pradesh College Teachers’ Association.

This has been the case for decades. With fewer science students, there are fewer science teachers as well. APU authorities said that, because of the lack of teachers, they are not even thinking of introducing courses that have a practical component. Moreover, finding qualified associate professors is also painstaking. The post for associate professor is vacant in three departments of the university.

“Applicants are not satisfying the basic minimum requirements of the University Grants Commission (UGC). For those who are already teaching in government colleges, their basic issue is the lack of publication in research journals. It has a lot to do with workload as well. Teachers in government colleges are burdened with co-curricular and extra-curricular activities and usually have three or four additional responsibilities… Living in a remote state is another problem,” said Darang.

Arunachal University: Future plans

Despite these constraints, the university hopes to expand. “We hope to have 40 departments in the next 10 years. We will also be looking at research among tribal communities. As a university located centrally in a tribal state, there is a lot of scope there,” said Darang.

APU is planning to begin PhD from the 2024-25 academic year. Departments such as tribal studies have already submitted supervision requests in July.

“There are many things within even one single community, like oral traditions, belief systems, cultural practices. The work so far has been an ethnographic study which is just a collection of data. There is no exploratory or analytic study. Our main purpose is to record and document all the tribal practices. These, including many of the languages, are almost endangered now,” said Doye.