New courses on JUs third campus

Updated on: Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Kolkata: JU’s third campus will be a trendsetter in more ways than one.

For one, only emerging and cutting-edge subjects will be taught on the campus, which is to come up on land that once housed the factory and offices of National Instruments Limited in Jadavpur; what’s more heartening is that the campus will also aspire to be a green one, with a minimal carbon footprint.

JU is considering teaching subjects like environment management, energy management, disaster management, transport management, environment law, intellectual property rights or patent law on the third campus. A committee, set up by JU’s executive council (EC) for the third campus, has decided that no existing academic programme of the institution will be taught on the new campus. The committee’s decision will now be placed before the EC at its coming meeting for formal sanction.

The courses taught on the third campus will have to be partly self-sustaining. Moreover, the campus will also house a business incubation and innovation centre (BIIC) and a centre for socially relevant technology. The BIIC will encourage students, research scholars and teachers to take up innovative projects leading to entrepreneurship development. Postgraduate programmes in management and specialised law programmes may also be initiated in a phased manner.

The EC has also agreed to try and make the new campus a green one. “We’ll try and make the campus eco-friendly. The buildings will have facilities for rainwater harvesting. Moreover, there will be optimal use of solar energy through solar panels. Use of plastics will be banned and biodegradable products recycled,” said a JU faculty member.

“Jadavpur University wants to dedicate the NIL land for education. There are several institutions on Subodh Mullick Road. JU took over the 450-cottah NIL land to keep the educational character of the area intact. The location of the plot is among the best in the area,” said the faculty member.

The university has sent a Rs 100-crore proposal to the Union finance ministry and has requested the Centre to sanction the sum. “We are open to the idea of allowing a particular group to set up infrastructure for the third campus. However, if Rs 100 crore is sanctioned by the centre, we will do it ourselves,” said JU vice-chancellor Pradip Narayan Ghosh.

JU has no more plans to take up land of any other sick industries like NIL. “We had earlier shown interest in taking over land on which Calcutta Chemicals stands. It did not materialise. We had taken over NIL with all its liabilities and assets,” the faculty member said.

New courses on JUs third campus

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