Adil Lateef
SRINAGAR, Oct 17: The Kashmir University’s prestigious Media Education Research Centre (MERC) department has been plagued due to poor infrastructure, lack of latest facilities, modern equipments and placements since for last several years.
Speaking to Excelsior, the students who are currently enrolled at MERC listed series of problems that they are facing in the department and most of which have been left unaddressed. From the technological point of view, the MERC is still relying on old models of shooting equipments that include video cameras. The students alleged that the department denies them some of the available new up-to-date equipments at the time of requirement.
The MERC students said that the departmental studio also lacks lighting system. “The lighting system is not installed in the studio and the lights are gathering dust in the storeroom,” they said, adding that at the time of NAAC inspections, the MERC authorities install them to earn good rankings and then again uninstall. “This clearly shows that the equipment is for earning rankings and not for teaching students,” they said.
The students and insiders said that the computer lab is also in poor state and most of the computers are defunct and some of them were also stolen. The Air Conditioners (ACs) which have been installed in the MERC classrooms are also lying defunct for the want of repair while the projectors are also not well equipped. According to students of the MERC, the department until few years back used to hold writing workshops for its students and professionals from national and international media houses used to train the journalism students but that has also been stopped now.
The MERC has also stopped sending students to the media tours even as the students say that they having been depositing money for the same from past two years. “We have been depositing the amount for media tours but no such tour was organized last year neither this year,” said the students currently pursuing masters in journalism from the MERC.
The major problem that MERC pass outs face is lack of placement through the department. Students as well as officials confirmed to Excelsior that for last five years, no placement through department has taken place. The department has no placement officer and the students who pass out apply for jobs at their own in different media houses. Also, it has been seen that a large number of pass outs also apply for non-media jobs.
Insiders and students said that ‘MERC Times’ publication of the department has not been printed for last two years despite the fact that the students are made to work and submit their stories for the same. The students revealed that every month they work on the stories – from writing to editing – but ‘MERC Times’ is not being published.
With regard to the internships, the students said, they largely approach media houses on their own and at many instances they have had repeatedly ask for recommendation letters from the department. “We mostly go for internships on our own and do not rely on the department. Sometimes few small time editors seek students for internship from department but then we end up being exploited,” the MERC students rued.
Interestingly, the MERC is without an HoD and is being headed by a coordinator who has been getting extension since five years continuously. The Kashmir University Public Relations Officer did not respond to the query about single coordinator heading the MERC for years.
When contacted for his response, the MERC Coordinator Faruq Masudi said there is no truth in majority of the complaints made by the students. “Somebody is trying to engineer this whole conspiracy,” he claimed. Responding to the queries, the Coordinator did accept that they have latest equipments. He, however, said that they cannot provide that to the students in order to avoid damage.
“They are trainees and not professionals. We buy equipments after a year or two but we cannot buy it every three or six months,” he said, adding that the projectors are latest and one of them is used frequently for training purpose. There is no reason to complaint. No one came to us.”
The MERC coordinator said that none of their computers have been stolen and “this is an exaggeration”. “But yes, some of the computers are slow. The computer RAM gets updated from time to time. We cannot buy computers every two-three months,” he said. The MERC Coordinator confirmed that the ACs are lying defunct but was quick to add that “the ACs are not allowed to be installed in classrooms”.
With regard to studio lights, the Coordinator said that the students presume that “we have Hollywood studio here”. “There are three types of lights and they are used accordingly. We are an electronic media,” he said. The MERC head confirmed that there is no job placement officer but added that they provide students with internships. “We help our students with internships and good numbers of students get placed in same organizations then. We also make calls to organizations on informal basis for our students,” he said.
The MERC coordinator said they do conduct workshops but confirmed that exclusive writing workshops have not been conducted for last many years. He also confirmed that the MERC Times has not been published for last two years, citing 2016 unrest and GST as the reasons. “The issues got accumulated at the press…However, in next two days, it would get sorted out,” the Coordinator added.
With regard to stoppage of media tours, Masudi cited multiple reasons including handling of student numbers and disinterest of news organization but denied to have taken any amount from students for the same. “Also, the students want to go to Mumbai only,” Masudi added. The MERC Coordinator when asked said they don’t have funding problem from the Government. “Overall, I would say as an observer, we are doing fine,” he said and called those students ‘disgruntled’ who spoke to Excelsior.
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