Minister for Education Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Monday announced 50% fee cut to the students who seek admission in Nursing and Architecture courses in the constituent colleges of Cluster University Srinagar (CUS) and Cluster University Jammu (CUJ).The Minister directed the concerned officers to cut down the existing annual fee of nursing course from Rs 65,000 to Rs 32,500 for general students and make it Rs 15,000 for students who fall under Below Poverty Line (BPL) category.He also announced the 50% cut on the existing annual fee for Architecture course from Rs 100000 to Rs 50000 for general students and Rs 25,000 for BPL students.Bukhari made this announcement while chairing a meeting convened to review the functioning of CUS and CUJ and to discuss the action plan for the speedy growth and development of these varsities.The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary Higher Education, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon; Law Secretary, Abdul Majid Bhat; VC CUS, VC CUJ, Director Colleges (Kashmir), Director RUSA, Registrar CUS, Registrar CUJ, Principals of constituent colleges, and other concerned officers from Higher Education and Finance Departments.
On the occasion various issues were discussed for the development of Cluster universities. The meeting discussed the appointment of Deans for both the universities wherein the Minister asked VCs to prepare the list of candidates each for CUS and CUJ so that these positions are filled up at an earliest. Later, the Minister said, the appointment of Deans would be made in consultation with the Chief Minister, Ms Mehbooba Mufti who is also the Chancellor of these universities. Bukhari said that CM has desired to address all the problems faced by these Cluster Universities as these are in its infancy phase and needs a handholding.The minister directed the VCs to hold the monthly meeting so that the issues relating the development of universities can be discussed and the problems and issues, if any, are addressed in a time bound manner.The meeting was informed that the logos for both the universities will be developed by National Institute of Designing at the cost of Rs Six lakh each and will be ready by August 15.The strengthening of the existing faculty and the need for the additional faculty for these universities was also discussed threadbare.