In pursuit of quality and excellence

Updated on: Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The Central University of Kerala (CUK) located at Kasaragod has stepped up its activities with an aim to take higher education to a wide range of stakeholders.

Set up as one among the 15 new central universities sanctioned by the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), the CUK has already initiated several programmes, as part of the objective of providing instructional and research facilities in all suitable and relevant branches of learning.

Led by its Vice-Chancellor Jancy James, the university is working on its vision plan to become a world-class higher education institution. Dr. James has not only rich academic experience but also administrative acumen gained as the former Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University. In an exclusive interview to The Hindu-EducationPlus, the Vice-Chancellor elaborates on the roadmap for development of the university and its academic programmes.

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had recently asked the Vice-Chancellors of central universities to come up with vision documents on how they proposed to turn the universities into world-class centres of learning. Could you elaborate on the highlights of the vision plan of the central university?

The general vision was that the new central universities will offer cutting-edge programmes in all areas including humanities, social sciences, and science and technology. It was decided at the consultative meetings that the varsities will bring together experts to identify relevant academic programmes besides updating on existing courses. In that way, the central universities have a double function—to strengthen the existing programmes and come up with new academic courses that would help promote the idea of being world-class universities.

The vision of the Central University of Kerala is to build up the institution according to international standards. It is a great opportunity for the overall academic development of the State. The university will contribute a lot for the development of the local community besides making the State a preferred destination for excellent quality higher education.

It will also contribute effectively in the economic and social development of the people here. But we need to have basic amenities including the availability of land for setting up the campus.

We are yet to have a permanent site. Even though the government had identified a few spots, the commission appointed by the MHRD gave a report saying that the sites proposed were not ideal for establishing the varsity. The uncertainty is definitely hindering us from taking forward our programmes and launching new academic courses. I will soon meet the Education Minister M.A. Baby seeking his help in identifying a suitable site for the central varsity. The Minister had assured all support for the project.

What are the academic programmes being envisaged for the varsity?

We are trying to re-orient courses in an inter-disciplinary manner. For example, we have postgraduate programmes in comparative literature and economic theory and global governance. School of Comparative Literature envisages comparative, inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary courses giving equal importance to English literature and cultural studies. Courses in Indian and other foreign languages will also be offered by the school. The credit and semester system offers this wonderful opportunity to offer elective programmes for the students.

Flexibility is the key aspect here. We will offer electives like translation, editing, writing for media and cultural studies for students. The university is also planning to have Sanskrit and film studies, as elective papers. The aim is to update and make relevant the existing programmes. And we want to attract the best of talents to take up the courses offered here. Care has been taken to re-organise the programmes and offer cutting-edge aspects in each area. The course in economic theory and global governance will have gender and law, law and economics and a comparative study of economic development, as its components.

I hope that our programmes will inspire students to take up research in their interest areas particularly at the elective level. Central varsities have got the wholehearted support of the University Grants Commission. It had already given us the green signal to go ahead with the new courses.

Which are the schools that the varsity will have for offering its programmes?

We have set up the School of Languages and Comparative Literature and School of Global Studies, which will offer the Master's programmes in comparative literature and economic theory and global governance, respectively.

We plan to start the School of Biosciences during the next academic year. An expert will prepare a project on the academic programmes to be carried out by the school. It will be different from the existing programmes in biosciences. The curriculum will be newly-oriented. The varsity will also have Schools for Legal Studies and Education. The School of Education will offer a postgraduate programme in the field. It will also come up with training programmes for teachers in the local area. The school will function as a nodal centre for training various batches of teachers. It will also play a key role in empowering the teaching community in Kasaragod. Other plans include setting up School of Mathematics and Computer Science and School of Adult and Continuing Education.

Do you have plans to come up with innovative programmes based on the region's unique ecosystem? Will the varsity have courses that would help in creating employment within the State?

It will be a great opportunity to see that students of economics, as part of their assignments, discuss the growth potential of the locality. They can look around and see what the place needs. We will soon hold discussions with the authorities at Central Plantation Crops Research Institute at Kasaragod to identify possible areas of cooperation. The university will also initiate studies regarding the rich cultural history of the State especially of the Malabar region, which is a treasure house of several art forms. Referring to the second part of the question, we do not have any courses for employment generation. That is not the task in front of us. But we can have exchange programmes with several other universities, as part of the roadmap for turning this university in to a world-class institution. We can invite expert faculty for a short term and they can offer course. I believe that once our students are equipped, they would have the capacity to even create jobs for others. Our focus is to develop the innovative and communicative potential of the students. I have already initiated steps to create an atmosphere of intense intellectual engagement on the campus. Once that is successful, our students will be qualified to get jobs anywhere in the world.

What is your take on the admission procedure for the central varsities?

We plan to conduct a national test in April for admitting students. Discussions are also on to conduct the test online. We would also like to publish the results immediately after the completion of the test. The university is also trying to introduce online registration besides conducting the admissions also online.

The university is working on all these aspects. The HRD Minister had also recommended a common admission test for the central universities. There are practical difficulties in holding a common admission test. The universities need not offer the same courses. The orientation might also be different. We have not ruled out the idea of having a common admission test, as that would be more convenient. But no decision has been taken yet on

In pursuit of quality and excellence

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