Centre helping JNU improve its infrastructure

New Delhi: The Centre is providing full assistance to the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to improve its infrastructure, including student hostels and academic buildings.

The Centre’s Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) has granted a financial assistance of Rs 455 crore to the university for the construction of new academic buildings, hostels and research centres.

JNU vice-chancellor M. Jagdesh Kumar said the funds will also be used for establishment of the Advanced Animal Research Facility, which will be useful for carrying out research on communicable, non-communicable and rare diseases, including infectious agents such as novel coronavirus. The vice-chancellor said the construction of new buildings and facilities would soon begin.

The HEFA was set up on 31 May 2017 by the Central government as a non-profit, Non-Banking FinancialCompany (NBFC) for mobilising extra-budgetary resources for building crucial infrastructure in the higher educational institutions under the Central government like IITs, IIMS, AIIMS and Central universities. As per arrangement, the entire principalportion is repaid by the institution over 10 years, and the interest portion is serviced by the government by providing additional grants to the institution.

The HEFA aims to fund projects to the tune of Rs 100,000 crore by 2022. Till December 2019, projects worth more than Rs 37,000 crore had been approved. As many as 75 educational institutions had availed funding through HEFA till last year.

Kumar said the funds will also be used for installation of integrated and unified Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, which will ensure that all academic and administrative processes are totally operated using online means in an integrated manner.

This, he said, will make all the processes in the university efficient and time-bound. Kumar said the funds shall be utilised for the construction of student hostels and academic buildings for the School of Engineering and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management & Entrepreneurship, Trans-Disciplinary Academic Research, Advanced Animal Research Facility, Advanced Instrumentation Research Facility, Incubation Centre for start-up companies, Special Centre for e-Learning and Lecture Hall Complex.

About 1.3 lakh candidates apply for JNU entrance examinations every year, but only about 2,000 get admission, the V-C said. The Special Centre for e-learning shall impart education by offering online degree programmes to many such students who could not be admitted in the JNU, he added.

“This is also in tune with the objectives of the National Education Policy of increasing the gross enrolment ratio. The new Advanced Instrumentation Research Facility (AIRF) and Advanced Animal Research Facility shall increase the research capability of the university and also be made available for other institutions of the country as a national facility,” he said.

The Advanced Animal Research Facility will be useful for carrying out research on communicable, non-communicable and rare diseases, including infectious agents such as novel coronavirus.