The premier social sciences varsity in the country, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), situated in the Capital has a good track record of utilising the funds allocated to it. Last year, the varsity received funds totalling Rs 40 crore. ?Generally, the utilisation of the Budget is almost 100%. The funds are generally given in several instalments. This year, for instance, the first instalment of Rs 7 crore has already been disbursed

to the university. The problem arises when we receive funds at the fag end on the year,? says Ramadhikari Kumar, rector, JNU told FE.

The varsity is looking at establishing yet another hostel on campus in keeping with the numbers that it attracts. JNU, currently, has 14 hostels and the construction work for the fifteenth one is already on. ?Our total intake has gone up to 1,600 students per year. As we get students from every region in the country, we need more hostel facilities. We plan to construct, at least, one hostel in each five-year Plan. The work is already in progress for constructing one additional hostel that will take the total number of hostels to 15,? says Kumar. But then, do we need a PG social sciences varsity, when faced with a vocational courses crunch in the country?

Currently, 4,500 students are, however, studying in the university. With the growing number of students on campus, the university has written to University Grant Commission (UGC) for the allocation of more funds so as to help the university create adequate infrastructure. Although, it is still waiting for a response from UGC, it believes that to be a mandatory step to upgrade the infrastructure.

?If the apex court of India vacates the stay on other backward castes? reservation in educational institutes, we may end up suffering severe infrastructure bottleneck. We do not want such a situation in future and that?s why, we decided to approach the UGC and urged it to allocate funds at the earliest,? says Kumar.

However, the university is strictly against hiking tuition fee for this purpose. The university fears that if it decides to hike the fee, poor citizens may find it tough to send their children to JNU and thereby the university would loose its ?image of being most affordable university of the country?. Even without reservation to other backward castes, a substantial 25% of the students of the university are from this section.

JNU was established almost 30 years ago with a vision to provide impetus to research in social sciences, at an affordable cost. Almost 25% to 30% of the total students are involved in research and enrolled in M Phil and Ph Ds. Currently, more than 300 students are pursuing research programmes. The varsity has been highly active in collaborating with many foreign universities and institutions and has established academic linkages with more than 90 top institutions in 29 countries such as the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK, Institut d?etudes Politiques de Paris, France and University of Illinois, Champaign, USA, among others.

The varsity follows a semester system and also has a grading system in place. This clearly shows the dynamic approach of the university vis-?-vis other varsities in the country. In fact, the ministry of human resource development and University Grant Commission are still struggling to put in place the semester system in all the universities of the country.

JNU has a flexible system whereby faculty members, centre and schools have a say in the decision-making processes. Syllabi are updated frequently. Every department has an academic council attached to it. If the academic council deems it fit, it can recommend changes in the syllabi of different varsities. Also, the teachers have the freedom to choose material conducive to their methods of teaching.