Bihar moots proposal for women's university

Buoyed by the highest growth in female literacy in the decade and significant increase in the number of girls passing class 10 and 12 board examinations, the human resource development department has mooted a proposal for setting up a women's university - only the second of its kind in the country.

Buoyed by the highest growth in female literacy in the decade and significant increase in the number of girls passing class 10 and 12 board examinations, the human resource development department has mooted a proposal for setting up a women's university - only the second of its kind in the country.

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Besides, there are plans to set up a Hindi university to be named after Rashtra Kavi Ramdhari Singh Dinkar in his native Begusarai district, a sports university and an information technology (IT) university.

The HRD has called for preliminary project reports (PPRs) for each of the projects, which will form the basis of the detailed project reports (DPRs) to be developed later.

The women's university will be developed on the lines of Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University (SNDT), Mumbai. The 95-year-old SNDT Women's University, with three campuses, 26 colleges, 38 university departments and enrollment of over 80,000 women, has the distinction of being India's first and only women's university.

According to sources, HRD secretary S Shiv Kumar has moved the proposals along with several other recommendations for major changes in the field of higher education, which has slipped into a state of disarray due to a spate of controversies. HRD minister PK Shahi has endorsed the proposals.

Sources said the women's university would have all the women's colleges of the state under one umbrella, like the Aryabhatt Knowledge University (AKU), which aims to bring all technical institutions under its fold. "With this, the government will have the freedom to develop them as it likes, without any interference from Raj Bhawan," they added.

Another proposal is for establishing a central library, on the lines of Chennai central library - one of the central support services of IIT, Madras. There is also a plan for setting up book banks in colleges for easy availability of study material to students. For the toppers in board and university examinations, the department is mulling a scheme to put up adequate grants and loan facility on easy terms.

"For talented students going abroad for higher education also, a scheme will be worked out for easy availability of education loans. Within the state, centres of excellence in professional courses and education will be developed to decrease migration of students to other parts of the country that will prevent huge capital outflow," he added.

Aware of the huge requirement of school teachers, the HRD has also mooted establishment of more teachers' training and B Ed colleges. Bihar is among the states with lowest number of teachers' training colleges. The HRD has also advocated modernisation of the intermediate council building so as to accommodate some other departments.

In view of the expansion of HRD work area, the secretary has also proposed a separate building for the department. For this, land will have to identified.