Indore: Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) has sent proposals to department of higher education for upgrading 14 of its teaching departments as Centres of Excellence under World Bank project.
“Total Rs 72 crore grant has been sought for upgrading 14 teaching departments as Centres of Excellence,” DAVV registrar Anil Sharma said.
The university has proposed to upgrade Schools of Physics, Chemical Science, Statistics, Instrumentation, Computer Science, Biotechnology, Life Sciences as Centres of Excellence.
The move comes nearly one-and-a-half months after two out of eight proposals of DAVV for Centres of Excellence status were accepted under Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Quality Improvement Project of World Bank.
On the other hand, all seven Centres of Excellence proposals of Jiwaji University (Gwalior) and six of Barkatullah University (Bhopal) were approved by the department. The DAVV got merely Rs 1.8 crore whereas Jiwaji University and Barkatullah University were granted Rs 16.44 crore and Rs 10.96 crore respectively for setting up Centres of Excellence.
The DAVV, the only Grade A+ accredited university, had accused department of step-motherly treatment. When news reports about this were published, department of higher education went on back foot and asked DAVV to send proposals for all departments barring those offering self-financing courses.
“We have sent proposals for Centres of Excellence in new format. We are hopeful that most of our proposals will be approved this time,” Sharma said. About one-and-half-years ago, proposals for Centres of Excellence status had been sought by state government. Through the project, the WB had announced plans to pump in Rs 2,000 crore in select educational institutions of the state.
The project envisaged six Centres of Excellence in each university and one centre in each government college. However, later the figure for university was raised to eight Centres of Excellence.
