Jindal School project hits roadblock

Bengaluru: The Bangalore University’s effort to revive the proposal of ambitious Sitaram Jindal School of Economics (SJSC) has hit a road block again with three government nominated syndicate members opposing a few clauses of Memorandum of Understanding signed between the University and Sitaram Jindal Foundation. They have urged the university to drop the proposal.

Ravikumar, a government nominated syndicate member said that implementation of the MoU over the proposed institute will affect the autonomy of the university and goes against the interests of poor students.

It may be recalled that Jindal School of Economics was first proposed in the year 2011 when Dr N. Prabhu Dev was Vice Chancellor. Later SJF withdrew the proposal following stiff resistance from the government nominated Syndicate members who were against granting full autonomous status to the school of economics and wanted it under the control of the university.

Ravikumar said that in the name of a world class institute in line with the London School of Economics, SJF was eyeing valuable land of the university. “According to the terms and conditions by SJF in the MoU signed with BU, it is clear that the proposed institute will be an autonomous one as per the University Grants Commission guidelines. It also puts conditions like no nomination of any non academic persons to the school etc which violates the autonomous character of the university,” he said.

“It is proposed that every year 100 foreign students will be admitted which again goes against the provision of the state Universities act. The proposal was placed in front of the syndicate and academic council of the university only after signing the agreement,” he said.

Meanwhile state higher education department is expected to issue directions to the University to go ahead with the project. “It is an ambitious project. BU will be split into three universities soon and there is a need for more corporate funding for the University for launching new courses. The issues raised by a section of university syndicate is not acceptable,” said an officer.