The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Kerala University may get Rs.25-crore UGC aid

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Wednesday, Aug 06, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala University may get Rs.25-crore UGC aid

G. Mahadevan

This is Eleventh Plan assistance for the university

University had asked for Rs.42.31 crore
It is due for NAAC accreditation this year

Thiruvananthapuram: The University of Kerala is likely to get about Rs.25 crore as 11th Plan assistance from the University Grants Commission. Of this Rs.12 crore is expected to be the development grant component and the rest, for various development and academic projects proposed by the varsity during the Plan period.

This amount is roughly half of what the University had requested from the 11-member UGC team that conducted an evaluation tour beginning July 16. The varsity had asked for Rs.42.31 crore as development grant and Rs.9.94 crore for various schemes. During the 10th Plan, the University — the oldest in the State— was allocated Rs.4 crore. It only got Rs. 3.6 crore.

Vice-Chancellor M.K. Ramachandran Nair told The Hindu here on Tuesday that the University was yet to get an official confirmation from the UGC about the grant. “But we have received indications about the grant size,” the Vice-Chancellor said.

On libraries

The next meeting of the Syndicate of the University is also likely to discuss two suggestions made by the visiting UGC team. The team had asked University officials why there were libraries attached to each teaching department. Team members suggested that the University have a library at Kariavattom and a main library at Palayam.

“The team suggested that we keep these two libraries open round-the-clock. We cannot implement this all of a sudden. The syndicate has to discuss this, and then we have to talk to employees’ organisations. In principle, we have not rejected this suggestion,” Dr. Nair explained.

Moreover, the team wanted these libraries to be open to the public at large. Now admission is restricted to ‘graduate members.’

The team also suggested that the University do away with the practice of having ‘Centres’ attached to teaching departments and having directors for such centres. Such centres should be totally independent from the department. If at all a centre is attached to a department it should be headed by a coordinator and not a director. The post of the coordinator should be below that of the professor in the department. This suggestion too would soon be debated by the syndicate.

The University is due for re-accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) this year. In 2003, during the first ever accreditation, the Council had given only a B++ rating for the varsity.

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