New colleges fail to implement UoP's student-centric schemes

IN an image building exercise, the University of Pune (UoP) had initiated Board of Students' Welfare (BSF) to reach out to all the affiliated colleges. Today, the BSF covers 472 colleges in Pune, Ahmadnagar and Nashik districts.

But recently it was learnt that 92 affiliated colleges had not implemented a single BSF scheme on their campuses. Most of the newly affiliated colleges are either engineering or management ones.

Not faring well: Main building of Board of Students' Welfare (BSF) on the UoP campus. Pic/Niranjan Medhekar

BSF Director Dr Pandit Shelke said, "Earlier, there was a misconception that BSF is limited to only earn-and-learn schemes. We then decided to change this picture by approaching colleges unaware of this important student-centric department of the university."

It is expected that every college have at least one student welfare officer (SWO) who can inform students about various schemes and activities promoted by the BSF, and appeal them to be a part of it. In addition to operating the earn-and-learn scheme, the BSF manages about 30 others, including career counselling, personality development and disaster management.

"The earn-and-learn scheme is implemented mostly in rural parts and for students from arts and commerce faculty because many a times students in these colleges belong to families with low income. When we first approached engineering and management institutes, they bluntly refused to participate in BSF schemes assuming that there was nothing beyond earn and learn scheme. But with our detailed briefing, we managed to add 92 new colleges to our list," Shelke said.

Regardless of their additions, half of the colleges are unaware about the BSF and its various schemes.

"I know that there is a long road ahead before we reach the last student. Our efforts to connect more and more colleges are on," Shelke said.u00a0

879
Number of colleges, institutes affiliated with University of Pune (UoP)

472
Number of colleges registered with Board of Students' Welfare (BSF)