The Chancellor’s Chair of Excellence initiative at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) that aims at inviting renowned academicians from across the world to share their knowledge and expertise with the teachers and students at the varsity campus here will start rolling soon.
The official declaration on the first phase of the ambitious project is expected within ten days. Cusat had decided to set up a Chancellor’s Chair after it won the Chancellor’s award instituted by Governor P. Sathasivam for the best university in the State in 2016-17.
It had secured a score of 499.51 out of 750 to emerge on top of the list. The varsity had won ₹5 crore as part of the recognition. Vice Chancellor J. Letha said that noted professors and researchers from among the best 100 universities across the globe will come down and stay at the varsity as part of the Chancellor’s Chair programme.
“Initially, our idea was to ask a renowned academician to be at the campus for at least one semester. The search could not yield desired results as many could not spare that much of time,” she said.
Now, the varsity is working on a plan where the internationally-renowned faculty members will offer one-month programme in a department. Each department could identify such faculty members and request them to be on the campus for one month.
The invited faculty members will be offering short-term courses to researchers and students. “The duration of the stay could be extended as and when the programme enters the second phase,” said Dr. Letha.
Hostel for women
The university had decided to earmark ₹2 crore from the ₹5 crore for the construction of a women’s hostel on the main campus. This was part of the ongoing efforts to step up infrastructural facilities to girl students. ₹50 lakh will be used to create a corpus fund to encourage researchers to scale up their credentials.
Five researchers and five faculty members each would be given financial aid in the first phase. The interest from the corpus fund will be used to provide the assistance.