Ganderbal, Oct 11 (KNS): The 26th meeting of the Executive Council of the Central University of Kashmir (CUK) was held at Green Campus of the varsity here with Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir in chair.
Registrar, Prof. M Afzal Zargar, Finance Officer, Prof. Fayaz A Nikka, EC members from the university and outside Jammu and Kashmir, participated in the meeting.
Addressing the EC members, Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir, expressed gratitude to the Council members for their continued support and cooperation for the overall growth, progress and development of the university on all fronts. He said the Central University of Kashmir cannot be equated with any other institute of higher learning as it is still in infancy. “The varsity needs your sustained support in all its endeavours,” he said. Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir said that despite constraints on infrastructural front and other challenges, the university when compared with its sister universities is way ahead in academics and research. “We have a very strong knowledge base and an amalgamation of senior and young faculty members,” he said adding the faculty and administrative staff, both substantive and contractual, are doing a commendable job in the advancement of the university. Prof. Mir said that each and every department is contributing towards the academic excellence of the institution and many of the students and faculty members have brought laurels to the university. About the infrastructure development, he informed the members that the Ministry of Education, Government of India, has constituted a high powered technical committee, led by soil expert, Prof. K S Rao, which would be submitting its report about the constructions to be executed at the designated Tulmulla campus. He further said the government has allotted an additional 96 kanals of land at Watlar Ganderbal and the university’s plan to construct a township comprising hostels for students, and accommodation for university staff.
Welcoming the EC members, Registrar, Prof. M Afzal Zargar, who also took up the agenda items, said the university has made significant progress on academics’ front by establishing state-of-the-art laboratories in the Science and Engineering departments. “The varsity has adopted National Education Policy-2020 and several departments have already organised seminar, webinars and conference to debate the discuss the implementation of the policy in letter and spirit,” Prof. Afzal Zargar said, adding the School of Education, also organised a programme to sensitize the stakeholders including teachers in the School Education department of the Kashmir valley, about the NEP-2020 and its benefits. CUK Registrar said the university is continuing with its online teaching learning through different social media platforms and has successfully conducted the End Semester Examination (ESE) and other examinations of the students, adding the results of examinations were declared within a stipulated period of time and the degrees of students were completed on time.
The members also discussed various matters and accorded approval for establishment of Media Skills Development Centre, Centre for Skill Based Vocational Courses in Biotechnology, Centre of excellence in artificial intelligence, internet of things and machine learning, establishment of coding for all: DIT coding and IT skill development centre, advanced centre for research in social sciences, starting of online course in “online media and cyber security” and centre for capacity and professional development of school teachers.
Finance Officer, Prof. Fayaz A Nikka proposed the vote of thanks. (KNS)