A demand has been made to reassign the printing of textbooks of undergraduate courses in the University of Calicut to its publication division.
Abida Farooqui, Senate member, in a recent letter to the Vice-Chancellor, said that such a step would not only generate more revenue for the university but also make textbooks available for students at an affordable rate. At present, the textbooks are printed at the University Cooperative Store under a profit-sharing arrangement.
The reasons often cited for entrusting the job to the external agency are the cumbersome procedure, delay in bringing out the books in the market on time, and the quality of publishing. Ms. Farooqui said that under her chairpersonship, the Board of Studies had entrusted the task of printing the textbooks of six undergraduate (UG) common courses to the university publication division in 2017.
As English is mandatory for all UG courses, including those under the distance education stream, lakhs of copies were required. She said that despite the apprehensions raised by several quarters, the publication division was able to make them available on time. Their prices were cheaper and the university could generate some revenue. In 2019, the textbooks of the core courses too were given to the publication division. However, the arrangement was changed thereafter. Ms. Farooqui added that the well-equipped press of the university and its experienced staff should be utilised to print the textbooks for the UG.
