The 10-year-old Thiruvalluvar University is all set for smart classrooms, laboratories to teach foreign languages, a centre to promote entrepreneurship and skill development among students. The State has sanctioned a sum of Rs 1.6 crore for this, R Krishnamoorthy, registrar of the university said.
Professors and experts from abroad will be brought in to train faculty and help provide world-class higher education to the students, he added. Local MP D Raja has also sanctioned Rs 50 lakh from the MPLADS funds towards creating a multi-purpose auditorium on the university campus at Sekadu, he said. The university has Tamil, English, Mathematics, Economics, Chemistry, Zoology and Biotechnology departments offering PG, M Phil and PhD programmes with. 211 students. Also 10 government colleges, nine aided colleges and 77 self-financing colleges in Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Cuddalore are affiliated to the university.
Recently, the university had established Thiruvalluvar Institute of Distance Education (TIDE) offering 12 UG, eight PG, four PG diploma courses and two diploma certificate courses.
Krishnamoorthy said that the district administration has planned to allocate 6.5 hectares of land in Nariyaneri village, near Tirupattur, for the construction of a building for the TIDE centre. Recently, the State had sanctioned one more constituent college at Arakkonam to offer five courses, that will start functioning from this academic year, he added.
The department of zoology has undertaken research on various medicinal plants which are available in the country.
A grant of Rs 24 lakh has been received from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, to work on anti-microbial activity of Indian folklore medicinal plants to replace antibiotics against shrimp diseases.
The department of biotechnology has established the ‘Institutional Biosafety Committee’ under the aegis of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India to supervise the microbial research activities, he added.