Central University on drive to boost TN students intake: VC

TIRUCHY: The Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUTN) has only 30 per cent of student strength from the state and the university has been creating awareness among the students while the administration has sought a state reservation on par with the other national institutions, said Vice Chancellor M Krishnan here on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters, Vice Chancellor Krishnan said, the Central University located at Tiruvarur has been functioning since 2009 with as many as 27 departments. While 2,500 students are on the roll among them 900 students are staying at the hostels and 500 teaching staff are employed.

“Despite the fee structure being comparatively less and availing state and central scholarships made easy, the student strength from Tamil Nadu is very low. Only 30 per cent of the students are from the state. When a student can complete his post-graduation within the fee structure of Rs 20,000, the awareness strength of TN students in the upcoming academic year,” said the Vice Chancellor.

With low fees, students from rural and economically poor backgrounds can easily avail a world-class education and as a part of the awareness programme, the university has been reaching out to the local schools and appealing to the students to appear for a common entrance examination for admission.

“We have established a centre for helping the students to apply for the entrance examination and our faculty members would be present and assist the students to fill the applications. This has yielded fruit and more students are seen approaching the university this year,” Krishnan said.

“The questions will be asked from the Class 11 and 12 syllabi and the students can also write in the Tamil language also,” he said.

Meanwhile, the university is looking for a space in Tiruchy to start a campus near Bharathidasan University. “The Tiruchy district administration has promised to identify 5 acres of land which would help to build classrooms for 500 students and a guest house. The work would commence this year itself,” he said.

In the meantime, as a part of the educational development programme, the university has decided to start five new courses in the upcoming academic year. “A degree programme in Food Technology, Pharmaceutical, Foreign Language, Bioinformatics and Geo-Informatics are the new programmes to be started this year,” said Krishnan.