This is one of the 10 chairs that university has decided to shut down stating lack of sponsorship

The decision of the world’s largest open university, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), with over two million students, to discontinue its chair named after Mother Teresa has come under severe criticism from some members of the Christian community.

While the Mother Teresa chair, housed under the School of Social Work, is one of the 10 chairs that the university has decided to shut down, stating lack of sponsorship, IGNOU currently has eight existing chairs in various departments. These among others include the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) chair in the School of Social Work.

John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council, said, “We condemn the reprehensible and incomprehensive decision. At the time of a global Catholic campaign urging Pope Francis to fast-track the canonisation of Mother Teresa, an Albanian-born Indian-national Nobel laureate, IGNOU has decided to discontinue her chair.”

About the decision of IGNOU to ‘liquidate 10 of the existing 18 chairs’, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Sushma Yadav said, “The university has the CBCI chair sponsored by it which has broadly similar objectives as that of the Mother Teresa chair. Besides, it organises an annual Mother Teresa Memorial Lecture. This chair has been functioning since 2000. The Mother Teresa chair was notified by the university in 2011; did not become functional till 2012; and after discussions in two of the Board of Management meetings held in May and July, 2012, it was decided that all the chairs including the Indian Space Research Organisation chair, CV Raman chair for science education, Tagore chair, and the Vishveswarya chair for work in education linkages , where there is a lack of sponsorship, would be liquidated.”

The Board of Management had observed, “Each chair should have a sponsor and no chair should be established with university funds.”

“Funds for IGNOU come mostly from student fees and we have to ensure that we are able to give back the same responsibly to the students associated with the university,” said Prof. Yadav.