The Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) on Thursday approved its annual budget for 2012-13 that envisages a five-pronged strategy to overcome the ongoing financial crisis, including a hike in fee for all the courses offered by the varsity.
Presenting the budget proposals at the Syndicate meeting held here, Lopus Mathew, convener of the standing committee on finance, recommended that the fee for B.Tech. courses be aligned with the fee structure approved by the State government for self-financing courses.
Suggesting that the affiliated institutions of Cusat should pay a student registration fee of Rs.1, 000 per semester from the new academic year onwards, Prof. Mathew said that this will be in addition to the existing annual recognition fee of Rs.10 lakh per institution.
Stating that increasing student intake and introducing new courses were part of the five-pronged strategy, Prof. Mathew proposed introduction of new academic courses including evening/part-time courses. New courses will be offered using the existing facilities.
The budget has proposed that the School of Engineering and Department of Computer
Applications can introduce M.Tech. courses while the School of Legal Studies could come up with an evening course in LL.B. Short-term certificate programmes for those employed in the Merchant Navy sector can be offered by the Kunjalimarakkar School of Marine Engineering, it said.
As part of the efforts to strengthen computerisation in all areas of administration, the budget has allocated Rs.8 lakh for the Centre for Information Resource Management and Rs.2 lakh for International Relations and Academic Admissions (IRAA) wing of the university.
The budget has recommended a detailed power audit on the campus to ascertain the actual power consumption in the university. It has also suggested setting up appropriate energy saving models to save power.
The budget has earmarked Rs.24 lakh for augmentation of substation II and Rs.36 lakh for standardisation of the electrical installation panel board in the administrative office building. An assistance of Rs.5 lakh has been made for rainwater harvesting projects and ground water re-charging techniques on the campus.
