The 12 new central universities will start with only research programs

April 5th, 2009

Following is excerpted from a report in Telegraph.

Twelve new central universities that India is launching will start by offering only research programmes — MPhil and PhD — unlike existing varsities that are controlled by the Centre.

The new universities will focus exclusively on research, at least initially, though they can later expand and offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses not involving research as well, top government officials have said.

… But the 12 new universities will initially offer only research programmes, human resource development (HRD) ministry sources said.

“We will leave it open to each university to decide what research programmes they want to start with. At least one university wants to start with only MPhil courses. That is fine,” a source said.

The 12 new universities are to come up in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Orissa, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Bihar.

At least three of the 12 are expected to start offering courses from the 2009 academic session itself, though more may begin.

The strategy to focus only on research initially at the new universities is based on three major considerations, sources said.

One, it will allow the universities to initially “find their feet” without the pressure of a large number of students, officials argue.

Entry Filed under: Central Universities, Central University of Orissa, Koraput, Koraput-Jeypore-Sunabeda area (5)