New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University is working towards building a financial corpus, Vice Chancellor Santishree Pandit said Monday, adding that she inherited a Rs 130-crore deficit but would like to leave with Rs 500 crore in the institute’s accounts.
To boost revenue, the university is looking at several options – from inviting private philanthropy to opening language centres.
It has already started a Centre for Tamil Studies.
Pandit said: “JNU is known for celebrating the cultural diversity of the country and it has the visibility and brand value to start such a school. Students from north India will realise how much diversity there is in languages in the east, west and south India. This will lead to national integration as it will sensitise students.”
The announcement comes amid the ongoing Tamil Heritage Week and Indian Languages Week at JNU, which are being observed to preserve the history and heritage of Indian languages across the country.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has given the university Rs 10 crore to set up the centre. Pandit added, “We are in talks with Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Assam and Puducherry for more such centres. This would increase our funds by Rs 50 crore or so.”
Education ministers of Maharashtra and Assam will visit the campus on 15 December to set up similar centres for the promotion of their state languages. The university is also starting short term certificate courses in these languages.
Private help
JNU is in need of funds, not just to rebuild its structures but also to set up new buildings for several existing courses.
For this, the VC is seeking the help of private businesses and alumni to build infrastructure and hand it over to the university. Private interest will also cut short the time taken in bureaucratic processes, she said.
The institute is also in talks with the State Bank of India to set up an account where donors can directly transfer money. She said, “Several alumni have shown interest in donating and we will be updating the university website to provide them with a link that gives them tax benefits also. This will increase accountability as funds will directly go to the corpus account.”
Loans and IoE tag
While the university is in conversation with private players to rebuild its campus, it has also applied for a loan from the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) and the Ministry of Education for the Institute of Eminence (IoE) tag.
The VC said, “We are in the process of getting a loan of Rs 550 crore from HEFA and have applied for the IoE tag as well. JNU is the top cultural institution of the country and institutes with much lesser ranking have been given the tag.”
The IoE status brings a funding of Rs 1,000 crore to each of the institutes selected in the category.
The HEFA loan will be sent to the Central Public Works Department for the reconstruction of the wall surrounding the campus and the campus buildings.
So far, four science labs have been upgraded and others will be improved once more funds come in.
Pandit added: “We have also signed MOUs with several foreign universities for a joint collaboration and about 5-10 percent of the proceeds from that would go towards funding students’ field visits.”
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