Mangalore University is planning to adopt some villages for carrying out sector-specific studies and providing guidance for development, its Vice-Chancellor K. Byrappa said here on Sunday.
Replying to questions at a discussion on ‘Contributions of Mangalore University in Regional Development’, organised by Media Alumni Association of Mangalagangotri, the Vice-Chancellor said that the villages would be selected in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu districts, the jurisdiction of the University. “It is my dream,” the Vice-Chancellor said.
He said that final semester students doing project works would be directed to visit such villages and submit study-based project works after identifying the issues.
Mr. Byrappa said that the University would ensure that more than 100 foreign students studied in its campus from the academic year 2015-16.
He said that the University would release its vision 2030 document on its foundation day on September 10 this year. The document would be prepared in consultation with experts in different sectors across the country.
B.M. Hegde, the former Vice-Chancellor, of the erstwhile Manipal Academy of Higher Education (now Manipal University), said that government control over universities should go and there should be autonomy to impart quality education. “Now universities have become agents of the government,” he said, adding that the government should stop nominating its members (political appointments) to academic councils and syndicates of the university and instead should allow the university to select the members from among experts.
Sripati Tantri, a former member of the Syndicate of the University, said that the University should introspect on whether it was imparting quality education.
K. Chinnappa Gowda, a professor of Kannada and the former Registrar (administration) of the University, said that the University in all these years has been able to identify traditional knowledge system of the region and foster it. P.S. Yadapadithaya, Registrar (administration), said that the university would shortly organise an open house to showcase its strength.
Earlier, Manohar Prasad was felicitated on the occasion for his three decades of service as a journalist. After felicitating him, the Vice-Chancellor announced that the University would appoint him as an adjunct professor at the university.
Mangalore University will have a single entry point to its campus after 7 p.m. after some months, said Vice-Chancellor K Byrappa.
At a function here on Sunday he said that it would be done for security purposes. The university is now taking steps for making a single entry point as researchers and students would be studying late in the night.
