Started in 2009 with 16 students in a rented building near the district headquarters, the fledgling Central University of Kerala (CUK), one of the 16 Central Universities established under the Central Universities Act, 2009, is now an institution on a permanent campus here with 1,692 students in 23 academic departments as it is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
A unitary university located on the 310-acre campus at what is christened as Tejaswini Hills because of its close proximity to the Tejaswini river, the CUK has undergone a significant period of transition in infrastructural development and academic achievements since its inception.
Apart from the postgraduate academic departments, the university now has 14 centres including the National Resource Centre for Curriculum Design and Development offering 40 online courses under the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) which is rated 4.68 at the national level.
“Important achievements on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the university are appointment of teachers, infrastructure development, increase in the number of courses to 23 and the start of innovative courses such as public health and community medicine and public administration and policy studies,” university Vice Chancellor G. Gopakumar told The Hindu .
Additionally, the CUK has a centre in Thiruvananthapuram conducting BA programme in International Relations and the Department of Law functioning at Thiruvalla, he added.
Major achievements
Major achievements of the institution since its inception are its selection by the University Grants Commission in 2015 as one of its 11 centres for the study of endangered languages for which it was granted ₹3.62 crore, the sanctioning of the Pandit Madan Mohan Malavya School of Education in 2016 with a total outlay of ₹12.5 crore. The university has also received three projects in the category of infrastructural development, including the Yoga Department (₹10 crore).
“The university has a very strong and active Innovation Club and our expert faculty with international exposure contributes much to our goal of achieving quality research and innovation,” Dr. Gopakumar said. The construction of eight major academic blocks on the campus covering more than 3 lakh sq-ft in a period of around 2.5 years was also a major milestone, he said adding that the blocks had been inaugurated by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu in April last year.
Three hostels
At present the university has three hostels and two more sanctioned by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment will be inaugurated next month. Acknowledging that the sports infrastructure in the university is inadequate, university officials said that the university is preparing a special project under the Khelo India scheme to develop it.
