The University of Madras will name its campuses after those who have contributed to the growth of Tamil and provide other incentives for popularising Tamil among college students.
Speaking to reporters on the decisions taken at the Syndicate meeting held on Wednesday, Vice-Chancellor G. Thiruvasagam said the Chepauk campus would be called the “Tolkappiar Valagam.”
The Guindy campus will be named after Bharathiyar, the Marina campus after Parithima Kalaignar, the Taramani campus after Maraimalai Adigal, the Chetpet campus after Sekkizhar and the Maduravoyal campus after Kamban.
Dr. Thiruvasagam said this measure would keep the consciousness of these great men alive in the minds of college students. It was being done following the exhortation by various people at the recently concluded World Classical Tamil conference that universities should take the lead in popularising Tamil among the public.
Listing other decisions taken at the Syndicate meeting, Dr. Thiruvasagam said colleges would be allowed to apply for Tamil medium courses for this academic year itself, and colleges applying in future for Tamil medium courses would be given exemption from the affiliation fees.
Ph.D. students who submit a Tamil translation of their thesis along with the English version would be given Rs.20,000 as incentive to encourage more students to translate their works into Tamil. In addition, students who complete their thesis work in Tamil with the consent of their guides would be given a monthly stipend of Rs.5,000. This scholarship would be available to 25 students, 15 in the science streams and 10 in the arts streams.
The University would also move to the use of Tamil in all internal communications with Tamil software and training provided to all departments by September 15. As a first step, a circular had been issued to all departments that from July 5 the Vice-Chancellor would look only at internal documents that were signed in Tamil, he said. The directory would also be made bilingual, he added.
