The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Time to rejoice for Madras University

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 01, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Time to rejoice for Madras University

Special Correspondent

BRIGHTER PROSPECTS: The University of Madras building at Chepauk. — File photo

CHENNAI: The 150th year celebration is a fitting occasion to rejoice.

The University of Madras could not have asked for anything better than the Union Finance Minister's announcement on Tuesday — a Rs. 50-crore grant to mark the occasion.

Three of India's oldest among the modern universities — Madras, Bombay and Kolkata — get Rs. 50 crore each, as per the budget announcement in Parliament.

Vice-Chancellor S.P. Thyagarajan, who thanked the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister for the announcement, said the entire sum would go towards building up new specialised centres for research, and improving student amenities, besides building up new e-learning centres to benefit regular and distance education students.

Dr. Thyagarajan said that on March 29, 2005, the Vice-Chancellors of the three universities that were approaching their 150th year met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and presented copies of their proposals. The Madras University's proposal was for projects worth Rs. 107 crores, and sought Central assistance to implement them. The original proposals were under three broad areas: creating centres of excellence, creating physical infrastructure and thirdly building up new educational infrastructure.

The centres proposed were in areas such as nano sciences, a Ramanujam Museum and research facility, medical studies research and language and linguistics. Among the new physical infrastructure proposed were creation of an international students hostel, an indoor stadium at Chetpet, and a communication/computer centre.

Thirdly, the university was proposing virtual education centres and virtual classrooms.

"Once we know the details of the projects cleared, we can prioritise our activities," he added.

Maritime varsity

The country's first Maritime University is coming up in Chennai. The National Institute of Port Management at Uthandi was recently renamed National Maritime Academy and got deemed to be university status.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, in his budget speech on Tuesday, said this academy would be granted central university status soon. A law to this effect would be introduced in Parliament, he added. The regional branches of this national academy would function in Mumbai, Kolkata and Vishakapatnam.

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