Bangalore University to admit transgenders

BANGALORE: The academic council of the Bangalore University (BU) on Monday approved the admission of transgenders, reserving one seat each for them in all 49 post graduate disciplines.

Speaking at the academic council meeting, BU vice-chancellor Dr N Prabhudev said that in order to give transgenders equal status, the council had approved the issue of applications with the options — male, female and ‘TG’ (transgender) from this year.

The Express had first reported on July 20 that the BU had included a special category in its application forms to admit transgenders.   

The reservation is only for postgraduate courses. The V-C said that giving special quota in UG courses did not come under their purview. “We will write to the government to include this option for UG courses too,” he said.

The V-C said any mental or physical torture to these candidates would be considered ragging and action would be taken.

The university would provide special facilities like toilets/restrooms for them, the V-C said.

The V-C said all these years, transgenders were admitted to UG courses, without their identities being disclosed. But they were undergoing trauma that resulted in their low performance. He said after such candidates are admitted, the university would take the psychology department’s  help to counsel them if required.

Rs 5 lakh penalty

The academic council has decided to impose a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on 11 BEd colleges based on the recommendations of S Ramakrishna, enquiry and vigilance officer of BU. Out of the 41 colleges that were charged with irregularities, it was recommended that 11 colleges be disqualified.

The V-C said that these colleges had already completed their admission procedure for this year. “Even if we disaffiliate, they will approach the government seeking the cancellation of the disaffiliation. We do not want to trouble the students and therefore a penalty of Rs 5 lakh will be imposed,” he said.

No increment

Many of the local inquiry committees that were headed by senior academicians had approved many courses and increased students intake, even though the college managements had not applied.

 “The academic council decided to cut increments of the chairmen who headed these committees,” he said.

BS course gets approval

The council also approved the four-year BS course at three colleges and at the BU campus. Students will study basic science subjects in the first two years. They will also study economics and two foreign languages.

This will meet international standards.