Higher Edu Min Uday Samant warns against any moves to merge iconic Ranade Journalism Institute with Pune Univ

Minister to visit the Institute on August 14 to discuss matter with protesting student outfits

@the_news_21

Pune: With the student fraternity in Pune up in arms against the proposed merger of the iconic Ranade Institute of Journalism with that of the Pune University’s Media and Communication Department, Maharashtra’s Minister for Higher and Technical Education Uday Samant on Thursday warned that the government will thwart any political ploy behind the move while assuring that he would personally visit the city over the weekend to review the matter.  

“This institute is a vital resource for journalists and has a rich history. News has been published in a number of media outlets to the effect that it would be relocated to the Pune University premises (merger with Pune varsity’s communications department). A number of student outfits have urged me to visit Ranade Institute…I will accordingly be visiting Ranade Institute on August 14 to hear their problems. If this merger is a political ploy, then it will be quashed,” remarked Samant. 

The Minister, who belongs to the ruling Shiv Sena, earlier tweeted saying that the Yuva Sena (Sena’s youth wing) had demanded the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) should not relocate the Ranade Institute and that he would be personally visiting the Institute to discuss the problem with students. 

The Institute, which operates out of a century-old British-era building, began its prestigious journalism course in 1964. Considered to be the crucible for Maharashtra’s budding journalists and communication experts, the Institute is said to have opened new horizons for bright students from the State’s rural hinterland.  

While the Ranade Institute’s Journalism department became a full-fledged department under the Pune University in 1976 (being officially known as the Pune University’s Department of Communication and Journalism), its location away from the varsity’s premises – in the heart of Pune city on Fergusson College Road – and its government-funded status ensured that it its distinctive identity. 

A number of former and current students of the Institute, who have come together to form the ‘Ranade Bachao Kruti Samiti’, have alleged the merger to be a sinister connivance between some senior authorities in the Pune University’s Senate and some senior journalists in order to sell-off the prime land (where the Institute is located) and partake of a share of the proceeds. 

“The Ranade Institute of Journalism has been awarding the much-prized Master’s degree in Journalism for more than 50 years now and is considered as one of the best in the country of its kind in this field. As far as we know, some SPPU authorities plan to shift the Masters’ degree course to Pune university, thereby diluting the Institute’s value by leaving it to conduct a couple of Diploma courses. We have good reason to believe that once the Institute thus loses its educational value, then the building, which is on prime land valued at over Rs. 400 crores, will be sold-off to a builder who will convert it into a shopping complex or mall,” alleges Harshal Lohokare, a city-based journalist. 

Lohokare, an alumnus of the Ranade Institute (2014-16 batch), said that once the Masters course was moved to the Pune varsity, then the fees, which are presently in a few thousands owing to the Institute being government funded, would immediately shoot up to a few lakhs of rupees annually, thus denying students from the State’s rural hinterland a level-playing field.    

“Any decision to merge would completely alter the social and fee structure of the journalism department, making it harder for students from the social margins to make a mark in the field of communication and mass media,” Lohokare said. 

He further said that protesting student outfits had gathered evidence of the connivance between senior varsity officials and some senior journalists in this regard and would be submitting the proof to Samant when the latter visited the Institute on Saturday.   

“While we do not want to take any names of who those senior officials are, we have every reason to suspect that this is a far-reaching conspiracy. Such a move must be stopped at once. The very fact that such a move was considered by the SPPU without putting out a proper circular on their website reeks of illicit motives,” said student leader Kuldeep Ambekar, who is also president of the ‘Student Helping Hand’- a social outfit.