Odisha HRD

More details on the new and exisiting central universities

July 6th, 2007

This PIB article mentioned plans for establishing new central universities. Hindustan Times has a news report elaborating on various aspects of  the new central universities. Following are some excerpts:

A common entrance admission test for all Central universities, a uniform semester and credit system to allow easy mobility for students may come into force. …

“The common national entrance test for 30 Central Universities, including 14 new ones to be set up, to ensure top quality student intake, would be the same as the JNU test, which is well regarded and has been accepted,” a senior government official said.

JNU governance model of complete autonomy will also be adopted in all universities to check “political interference” in the appointment of vice-chancellors and faculty, the official added.

The semester system would also be similar to that of JNU’s, with a facility for a student to break away for a year or two and return, if he or she wishes.

All new 14 Central universities will have an engineering school, a management school and a law school, but would be allowed to charge higher fees than the conventional courses, the presentation states.

The presentation also recommends increasing the fee for undergraduate courses to Rs 12,000 per annum with 40 per cent of students getting substantial scholarships.

“The fee structure should cover 20 per cent of the cost for running the university,” the official said. The government also wants to set up a Central government loan guarantee mechanism, which will cover 75 per cent of the loan amount in case of default by students obtaining loans from the banks.

The underlined sentence above says 14 new central universities, while the PM’s address had said 30 central universities. Perhaps it may mean that  there will be 14 new central universities while 16 will be upgradations. If that is the case and indeed the new central universities have an engineering school, a management school and a law school, then all these will most likely would be part of the earlier mentioned central university in Koraput. That would be really great.

Entry Filed under: Central University of Orissa, Koraput,Odisha, others and the center,Planning Commission