Governor Satya Pal Malik, Chancellor of the Cluster University of Jammu, today chaired the first meeting of the University Council here at the Raj Bhavan.Advisor to Governor, Khurshid A. Ganai, Pro-Chancellor was also present in the meeting.While taking overview of the activities of the Cluster University, the Chancellor and Advisor called for creation of University’s own campus with the establishment of schools of excellence. At the outset, the Chancellor stressed that the Cluster Universities are created with the vision to have a strong commitment to nurturing collegiality and leading collaboratively with unremitting dedication to improve transparency and efficiency. He further said that the Cluster University inherits an academic mission whose goals are lofty, yet firmly grounded in an ethos of dynamism and academic responsibility and the mission is to create a community of lifelong learners that fosters Research, Development, Quality, Innovation, experimental learning, community engagements, academic leadership and administrative support.The Members made several tangible suggestions to make the Cluster University Jammu a real hub of educational activities. They said that Cluster University is a new concept in Jammu and Kashmir and it needs to be empowered so that it becomes choice of students over other Universities in Jammu and Kashmir.Prof Anju Bhasin, Vice-Chancellor, Cluster University of Jammu made a detailed presentation on the activities and various initiatives taken by the University.
The presentation focused on the functioning of the administrative, academic, financial, examination, evaluation and other sectors. She also reported the status of student enrolment in the University, and measures for the development of students and faculty.Listing some achievements by the University, the VC apprised that 12 new 5 year integrated courses, Honours programme in each of the colleges at UG level and new self-financing innovative, cross disciplinary skill based courses have been introduced. She further highlighted the important reforms introduced by the University which includes Academic Calendar defined for year-1, year-2 and year 3, flexibility to students to choose elective courses, admissions through centralized process, holding of examination in time-bound manner etc.Financial Commissioner Finance (Financial Advisor Universities), Dr. A.K. Mehta, Financial Commissioner to Governor, Umang Narula, VC, Cluster University of Srinagar, Prof. Sheikh Javid Ahmed, VC, Jammu University, Prof. Manoj Kumar Dhar, Secretary Higher Education, Talat Parvez Rohella, Dean Faculty of Education, Prof. M.A. Lone, Dean Academic Affairs, Prof. Poonam Dhawan, Dr. Jatinder Khajuria, Registrar Member-Secretary, Prof. Anil Gupta, Principal S.P.M.R College of Commerce, Jammu, Prof. Sangeeta Nagri, Principal, College of Education, Jammu, Prof. Koushal Smotra, Principal, GGM Science College, Jammu and Prof. Ravinder Tickoo, Principal, GCW, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu attended the meeting.