The Hindu : Karnataka News : VTU `e-campus' reaches out to 118 colleges

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 11, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

VTU `e-campus' reaches out to 118 colleges

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, FEB. 10. In the seven years after its establishment, the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), situated at Machhe, 13 km from here, has achieved connectivity with 118 colleges. It is said that the VTU is the first university in the country to transform itself into an "e-campus" with digital classrooms and online teaching/learning facilities.

The university, which has used the VTU-EDUSAT network in its endeavour to provide hi-tech facilities to both its students and faculty, has decided to conduct online examinations for postgraduate courses. In the first stage of the project this year, the VTU will conduct online examinations for first semester students of MBA and M.Tech. who attend classes on its campus. It plans to extend online examinations to its affiliated colleges.

According to the VTU Vice-Chancellor, K. Balaveera Reddy, the university has made rapid progress in the past seven years to grow into a hi-tech institution dedicated to moulding young persons into engineering professionals. Established on a 115-acre campus, the first phase of work on the establishment of the VTU has been completed and the second phase is progressing. The Government has allotted over 15 acres of land free of cost in Gulbarga for a building for a regional office of the university. The work is going on. The Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) has allotted 20 acres of land in Mysore, at Rs. 5 lakhs an acre, for setting up an office of the VTU.

Students of MBA and M.Tech. on the university campus have been provided laptops at concessional prices. Seminars and workshops are conducted to expose students to developments in engineering.

Pacts

To develop university-industry interaction, train faculty members, conduct teacher-training workshops and secure software at low rates, memoranda of understanding have been signed with global organisations. Realising the need to motivate students to consider self-employment, the VTU Entrepreneurship Development Cell has been set up in association with Centre for Entrepreneurship Development of Karnataka, Dharwad.

Convocation

The VTU will hold its fourth annual convocation here on February 17.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka