PUNE: Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) will be the first university from Maharashtra to propose an intention of establishing an educational campus in Kashmir.
Management council member Rajesh Pande proposed the idea of setting up an educational centre in Kashmir at the council meeting on Friday. The proposal was approved by all the members of the management council in SPPU.
After the abrogation of Article 370 from J&K on August 5, several educational institutes proposed to set up their campus in the Valley.
“The revocation of Article 370 has opened up the opportunity for educational institutes and industrial sectors to set up a complex in the Valley. Taking advantage of this, I had proposed to establish an educational centre there,” said Pande.
When asked if the university could have proposed to start a distance learning course or off-campus on a lease basis, Pande told Sakal Times that earlier Article 370 was a barrier. “It caused restrictions because of which we assumed it wasn’t possible to do so. Therefore, never gave it a thought then,” he said. “However, now that there is scope, we would like to make use of it. There are several private universities and institutes, which have shown interest in setting up a campus there. We, as state public university, too, want to contribute,” added Pande.
“Moreover, maximum Kashmiri students come to Pune for higher education and the university has also made several provisions for the students here. Keeping this in mind, we thought of the idea to have one there,” he said. The courses are likely to be professional or skill-based. The university will initiate the further process of establishment of campus, only after it receives permission from the State Government.
“There will be two or more provisions like if any SPPU affiliated college wants to provide courses there, it can do so through the SPPU centre. Another provision will be that the university will take into consideration the local educational institutes and offer diploma courses to students,” said Pande.
POINTS TO KNOW
- As per the Maharashtra State Public University Act, 2016, a State public university cannot be set outside Maharashtra.
- “Therefore, we will first seek special permission from the State government regarding this. Earlier, SPPU had sought special permission to provide courses off-shores in Dubai. Similarly, we will request the government to allow the university to be set up at the campus under a special ordinance,” said Pande.
- The proposal will be submitted to the chancellor of all State universities, C Vidyasagar Rao and higher authorities of the education department in the State government by next week.
