Date:10/07/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/07/10/stories/2005071014250100.htm

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BIM to be shifted from BHEL premises

S.Ganesan

15 acres to be allotted at Khajamalai campus of Bharathidasan University

TIRUCHI: Bharathidasan Institute of Management (BIM), a premier business school in the country, will soon relocate to the city campus of the Bharathidasan University.

An autonomous institution, it currently functions at the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) premises on the outskirts of the city. The institution, which enjoys close links with the BHEL, has been utilising the infrastructure of the public sector giant since its inception. In recent times, there was a felt need for more space and better infrastructure.

Announcing the decision to relocate the institution at the Senate meeting here on Saturday, the Bharathidasan University Vice-Chancellor, C. Thangamuthu, said the Syndicate had approved the move. "Nearly 15 acres of land will be allotted to BIM in the eastern half of the Khajamalai campus of the varsity in the city. A state-of-the-art building would be built to accommodate the institution and construction work will commence shortly," he said and indicated that the expenditure to be incurred for the project would be met by the BIM, which has emerged self-reliant.

New courses

The Vice-Chancellor said the Syndicate had approved the construction of additional buildings for various faculties in the university, including an academic block for the newly created School of Bio-Medical Sciences. The varsity, he pointed out, had decided to offer a five-year integrated course in M.Sc Bio Medical Sciences, besides M.Sc Bio-Informatics, M.A.Women Studies, M.Pharm, M.Tech (IT) and M.Tech (Sugar Technology) and post-graduate diploma in geomatics from this year.

A full-fledged Department of Computer Science had been created with the introduction of a full-time MCA programme, he said.

Later, responding to a plea from a section of the Senators for creating a supervisory committee to monitor valuation of answer sheets of undergraduate students, Dr.Thangamuthu said the university had decided to debar teachers from taking up valuation for two semesters if they committed errors in re-totalling twice consecutively.

With some of the members complaining about the casual manner in which some examiners were valuing answer-sheets, jeopardising the careers of students, the Vice-Chancellor suggested that the re-valuation fee paid by the students could be refunded if there was an abnormal difference of over 30 marks between the first valuation and the re-valuation. The fee could be collected from "erring" examiners. Distributing equal number of answer-sheets among examiners could also be stopped. A decision on the matter would be taken after due consideration by the academic bodies, he said.

Stating that extreme care was being taken to ensure a proper valuation system, Dr.Thangamuthu said in cases where there was a difference of more than 15 marks between the original valuation and revaluation, the university was sending the answer sheets concerned for third and even fourth valuation.