Candidates who fall under the general category and are pursuing their research in Mangalore University can avail of fellowships from next month.
Announcing this at the 37th Foundation Day programme at the university, K. Byrappa, Vice-Chancellor, said that the fellowships offered to candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will now be extended to those from the general category. However, he did not specify the fellowship amount each researcher would receive.
Mr. Byrappa said the government is likely to release Rs. 15 crore to the University in a few days to better infrastructure facilities at the proposed advanced science research centre in Belapu village of Udupi district.
The State government announced plans to establish the centre in its 2014-15 budget using funds from the Rashtriya Uchchatara Shikshana Abhiyan (RUSA), with Mangalore University as its mentor. It was one of the two such centres announced by the government in the budget. The other one was for Bengaluru. Of the 100 acres of land sought by the University for setting up the centre, 24.86 acres have been sanctioned by the government so far.
Of this, 20 acres were handed over to the University. Earlier, the State Cabinet had approved Rs. 15 crore as a first instalment for 2015-16. But the amount is yet to be released.
Proposal submitted
Earlier, a committee of the university had submitted a proposal to the government conceptualising the facilities that would come up at the centre. It had estimated the project cost in phases at Rs. 141.38 crore.
The proposal dealt specifically with the requirement of funds, and facilities such as laboratories, hostels, administrative buildings, bank and other offices that would come up.
The Vice-Chancellor said the varsity has 140 foreign students pursuing research, post-graduate and undergraduate courses since 2015.
The foundation stone for building a complex of lecture halls (for teaching students) and an international house (hostel) was laid on the occasion. Olympian Sahana Kumari and Tulu theatre and cinema artiste Devdas Kapikkad were felicitated.
Minister for Higher Education Basavaraj Rayareddi, Minister for Forests B. Ramanath Rai, and Minister for Food and Civil Supplies U.T. Khader spoke.
