Central grants to JU still low, will seek more grants: VC

With Jadavpur University(JU) ranking fifth among universities in the country, its Vice-chancellor Prof Suranjan Das today said it will appeal to the Centre for more financial grant to maintain its standard vis a vis central universities.
"We are competing with central universities mainly but our grant is meagre compared to theirs. While during the 12th Plan period the central varsities received Rs 200 crore-Rs 300 crore grant from the Centre, JU got just Rs 25 crore-Rs 27 crore from it," Das told PTI here.
Eighty per cent of the university's annual budget is borne by the state government, he said.

While JU has been ranked 12th in overall category, it secured the fifth spot among universities and the 9th position among engineering institutes in the HRD report.
"Among the state universities, we are the first only behind four central universities while among engineering colleges/institutes we are the ninth. This reflects the excellent standards maintained by JU and the constructive and creative thinking in the university where teachers, students and researchers work together. This is missing in other universities," Das, who had been formerly the VC of Calcutta University, said.
JU, he said, has a strong inter-disciplinary teaching, learning process ivolving centres, faculty and students undertaking research.

With the institute securing the 12th place in overall category as a world class university (10 public and 10 private), he will also write to Centre for grant as a world class university.

"Now I can't allot funds for colleagues going abroad to attend seminars. I know central varsities grant several lakhs as grants for streams like social science for its teachers. To maintain equal standard, equal opportunity must be given," the well-known academician said.
Asked how the fund, if sanctioned, would be used, he said "We need to upgrade our science laboratory to give more scope to my students.

"As we are proceeding towards knowledge economy no centre of excellence can be an island. My slogan is partnership of excellence," Das said.
Felix Raj, principal of St Xavier's College, Kolkata, which was rated 6th among the country's colleges in the same HRD report, said he was not sure about the criteria and parameter used in the process.
"It is good news but I am not sure about the criteria and parameter used for the rating process. The NAAC team had visited our college for rating, but don't know if anyone from HRD had visited us in the past," he said.