The Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) has decided to fill up around 50 sanctioned teaching posts lying vacant for long in the regular departments of the varsity apart from 23 teaching posts under its Directorate of Distance of Education (DDE) by June end.
MKU Vice-Chancellor Kalyani Mathivanan disclosed the information during a press conference organised on Wednesday on account of her having completed one year in office. “These vacancies have arisen due to retirement and other reasons. They would be filled up at the earliest,” she said.
Stating that she was committed to take the university to the next level in the next two years, the Vice-Chancellor said work was on for establishing smart classrooms for students pursuing business administration, political science and youth welfare studies. Construction of a new building for establishing a Science Instrumentation Centre at a cost of Rs. 4 crore was underway and there were plans to establish a Rs. 20 lakh language lab in the university’s main campus apart from a Rs. 30 lakh auditorium at the MKU College on Alagarkovil road.
The university would tie up with Auroville in Puducherry for implementing the green campus project at a cost of Rs. 2.9 crore sanctioned by the State Government. A research and education centre in the name of Swami Vivekananda would be established under the School of Youth Empowerment. She said that a lot of restructuring of departments had happened recently. A School of Information Technology has been created for offering courses in computer science and computer applications. Earlier, the computer science department was functioning under the School of Physics.
On the issue of a few students having resorted to a hunger strike inside the campus, she said that the issue had been resolved after she met them on Tuesday night. “They were aggrieved over delay in receiving UGC scholarships. I immediately offered them two months of advance amount,” she added.
However, Ms. Mathivanan said that she was not in favour of conducting student elections at present as the atmosphere was not conducive for it. She claimed that the hostel inmates did not properly utilise a chance given to them to conduct elections among themselves.
Replying to a question on sprucing up the infrastructure in hostels, she said that it was a time consuming process which involved calling for tenders and finalising them. “Students are our top priority and we are doing all that is within our might to provide them the best academic atmosphere,” she asserted.
