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The Universities of Calcutta, Madras and Mumbai signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Rashtrapati Bhawan today in the presence of the President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The MoU is for the three Universities to work together academically and socio-culturally on the occasion of their 150th Year. The document was signed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta, Prof Asis Kumar Banerjee, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras, Prof S.P. Thyagarajan and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mumbai, Prof Vijay Khole. Also present on this occasion were the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Shri Surjit Singh Barnala, the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Arjun Singh, and the Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, Dr. C. Rangarajan.
As the Universities of Calcutta, Madras and Mumbai were the first formed three universities of modern India in the year 1857, they are celebrating their 150th year as a national event. They requested that the MoU be signed in the presence of the President of India, so that it can act as a model for higher educational institutions in the country for co-operation amongst themselves.
The three Universities enter into their 150th Year by 2006. In order to instill vibrancy in higher education at the national level they have come forward to work together academically and socio-culturally. This MoU will bring about a national culture of sharing India’s academic strength and resources to project the quality of higher education in the country internationally.
The MoU envisages the following: -
1. Setting up of Tele-education and High Speed Data link facilities for online library networking and resources sharing between the three Universities.
2. To offer ‘Joint degree’ and ‘Joint-Ph.D.’ programmes between the three Universities
3. Setting up of chairs of University of Mumbai, Madras and Calcutta mutually for Marathi, Tamil and Bengali to bring about linkages both academically and culturally.
4. Be partners in the National Research Project on Nanosciences & Nanotechnology sharing the strengths and resources between them.
5. Short-term faculty exchange programmes between the Universities in identified areas of collaboration.
6. Setting up of mutual Distance Education Centres in the three Universities.
7. Instituting 150 Inter-University Students’ Fellowship for PG Studies and Research, fifty each by the three Universities to be called as “150th Year Students’ Fellowships of the respective University”
8. To plan for inter university sports events and Performing Arts/Cultural festivals by utilizing the slots available with Association of Indian Universities (AIU) for the year 2006-07.
RK/KKI
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