The Mumbai University’s student population over the decade has gone up by 60.35%. The student population study in the university, presented in the budget this year, has revealed that the students’ enrollment in the last ten years has gone up from 3,42,630 to 5,49,432.
The total number of affiliated colleges in the past decade has almost doubled with 317 colleges in 2001-02 with 653 colleges in the last year. The university, will this year, also be investing on projects like rain water harvesting and a special training academy for varsity’s staff. The budget was presented in the senate meeting held on Saturday.
This year’s budget also included new initiatives such as a quarterly journal to record university activities (Rs25 lakh) and an international research journal (Rs5 lakh). Special lecture series by Nobel Laureates or equivalent has also been allotted Rs50 lakhs.
A university official said, “The rain water harvesting is an ambitious plan under the newly passed budget. The project will be executed in the Kalina campus to collect the rain water during monsoons and use it in the future for several basic water usage at the varsity’s campus.”
The university has set aside Rs5 crore will be for the examination reforms. Some of the senate members claimed that the new technology used for evaluation and data feeding (optical mark reader) can delay the results further this year and that the new reforms would hardly be of any benefit for students. There is a shortage of teachers that has to be addressed by the university claimed the member.
For the first time, the varsity has allocated as much as Rs63,03,080 for the strengthening of the teaching and non-teaching staff of the varsity. The allotment is done for the Shankarrao Chavan Training Academy where the varsity staff will get intensive training that will include seminars and workshops etc. The ambitious project will come up in university’s Kalina campus.
