IP varsity plans to launch community radio, more UG courses under new VC

Setting up a community radio, starting new undergraduate courses, improving perception and addressing litigations are on the agenda of Mahesh Verma, the newly appointed vice-chancellor of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

The university was accredited ‘A’ grade twice by NAAC and Verma said getting the accreditation again is a priority for him.

“We are trying to meet all parameters of NAAC to get ‘A’ grade again. For the last four-five years, the public perception and visibility of the university has declined. We are trying hard to regain its glory and grace. We scored four marks out of 30 on the perception parameter in the NIRF rankings and our ranking also suffered because of it,” he told reporters.

Verma said since he assumed office, he has noticed that the varsity faced hundreds of litigations — some by students and affiliated colleges.

“Some are genuine and some are flimsy. I have been talking to the administration and we need to resolve it. Conflict brings negativity. That will be another area I will be working on,” he added.

In June this year, students had protested after they were asked to pay fee arrears. The issue had triggered a conflict between the colleges affiliated to the varsity and the Delhi government. The colleges had then approached the Delhi High Court, which upheld the hike. The Delhi government had filed a Special Leave Petition against the order in the top court, but it was rejected, according to a varsity official.

The vice-chancellor said the varsity mostly offers postgraduate courses but since undergraduate courses are the need of the hour, there will be more graduate programmes.

The varsity is planning to introduce popular UG courses like BA (Honours) English, B. Com (Honours), BJMC, BA ( Economics), BEd etc in the campus schools.

“We are planning to introduce more integrated courses, MTech in Environment Engineering, courses in Nano Sciences and PhD in emerging areas like Pharmaceutical sciences,” he added.

He said the law courses will be streamlined to reach out to new communities. The Legal Aid Cell, a community outreach programme, will be widened.

“We are also planning to start a Community Radio Station of the University on the lines of other universities but there is a community radio service already functional within 10 kilometre of our campus so we are working out processes. We are planning to start more skill and job oriented courses, especially in media department,” he added.