The Hindu : New Delhi News : AMU entrance exams likely at more centres

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Sunday, Dec 09, 2007
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New Delhi

AMU entrance exams likely at more centres

Parul Sharma

Academic Council yet to take decision: V-C

NEW DELHI: To reinforce the “national reach” of Aligarh Muslim University, beginning next academic year, the entrance examinations for courses like medicine, engineering and law will be held at other centres in different places apart from the University.

“As of now, the admission tests are held only in Aligarh. From 2008, in addition to the campus these will be held at four to six centres across the country. The centres will be identified from different regions. We have agreed in principle but the Academic Council is yet to take a decision on the same,” said Vice-Chancellor P. K. Abdul Azis who was here over the weekend for a meeting with the University Grants Commission.

New hostels

Even as AMU continues to make efforts to enhance the security and safety of the students on the campus after its re-opening early last month, the University administration is bracing itself to address the accommodation problems of the students.

The University is constructing new hostels and halls of residence to lodge students on its campus.

While three new hostels – one for girls and two for boys – are in an advanced stage of construction, two new halls of residence with a capacity to accommodate 1,000 students will come up soon.

“The hostels will cater to about 700 students and will be inaugurated before January 2008. The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has agreed to provide us a fund of Rs.48 crore for construction of the halls of residence. The Central Public Works Department is making the plans for the same,” the Vice-Chancellor informed.

Also, the Uttar Pradesh Government will finance the construction of two small hostels with a capacity of 100 students each.

In addition, AMU will begin construction of a building housing the Urdu Academy established to promote teaching and popularisation of the Urdu language.

“The Academy is an autonomous institution that will have a separate director and lecturers and readers. It has started functioning formally from the Urdu Department,” said the Vice-Chancellor.

Illegal occupants

Speaking about extra measures taken by the administration in the wake of past incidents of violence on the campus that led to closure of the University, Prof. Azis claimed that around 1,000 illegal occupants were evacuated from the hostel rooms.

“When the University was closed, we appointed a high-powered committee to give us a data base of all the halls of residence that we verified with the admission list. We prepared a list of bona fide students and removed those staying illegally comprising former students and even their relatives. This helped in accommodating students who were on the waiting list.”

New identity cards

“The students have been issued fresh identity cards. We have completed repairing of the hostels. Of the 16 gates leading to the campus, four are regularly used while others have been closed or made emergency entrances. The teachers are also working hard and taking extra classes to compensate for the loss of time,” Prof Azis added.

The Vice-Chancellor said he was very keen to enhance the research capacity of AMU. “We will organise a series of workshops to sensitise the University teachers on the awareness of project funding from various governmental agencies. My plan is that within the next two years at least 500 teachers should submit their projects.”

There are about 1,500 research scholars on the campus and he wants that 500 of them should submit their thesis by 2008.

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