This refers to the article “The Central University issue.” J&K is fortunate enough to have two universities sanctioned for it. Establishing a central university is really an uphill task. There is a huge amount of funds to be spent meticulously for establishing it on the required lines. People working especially during its establishment phase must have all-round knowledge on how to establish it. The Rector of the university must be a visionary. His appointment must not be distantly related to politics but should be purely based on merit. Right from raising buildings to running university, it needs art and thought. Expertise and experiences also lie in writings in books which need to be culled for achieving the set goal. Therefore it is again the talent which plays an important part. Faculty, locally available, needs to be encouraged but not at the cost of the university. Present age is the age of specialists and demands special attention to encourage true professionalism in the courses taught in the universities. The courses need to be chosen carefully keeping in view the local potential, which needs to be accommodated. What is important is that a new university should not be established at the cost of existing one. Being in a university for decades and having visited many universities I feel it is not so important in which district a university is located. What matters is that it should be accessible though road and rail links. Here we need to extend rail services in all possible corners of the valley with all consideration to our environment. Preferably, we may improve the road services by constructing flyovers which will to a considerable extent diffuse jams we generally witness within cities and even towns. The inter-district distances could be easily covered by cabs and cars (now cheaply available) within manageable time. Unlike bigger states like Andhra Pradesh we have not to cover hundreds of miles from Hyderabad to Vishakapatnam to be in another university. Instead our universities can be reached within a few hours.

M.S. Mattoo
Selection Grade Officer
Allama Iqbal Library
University of Kashmir
msmatto@kashmiruniversity.net

Lastupdate on : Sun, 17 Apr 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 17 Apr 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:00:00 IST