March 22, 2018 : Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar has achieved another benchmark in its academic excellence. The university has been listed amongst the top sixty educational institutions of the country which have granted autonomy by University Grants Commission (UGC). GJUST is amongst the nine universities of northern region including one another university of the state granted autonomy. The Union Human Resource Development Minister, Prakash Javedkar announced that UGC has awarded autonomy to 60 Higher Education Institutes of India on the basis of their proven standards of academic excellence through NAAC score and NIRF ranking. Entire fraternity of the university is delighted for this achievement.
Prof. Tankeshwar Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, dedicating this achievement to the entire university family said that this great accomplishment is the result of hard work, sincere efforts and dedication of all individuals affianced with the university. However the university will remain within the ambit of UGC, but will have the freedom to start new courses, off-campus centers, skill development courses, research parks, and any other new academic programmes. Further this provision would extend freedom to hire foreign faculty, enroll foreign students, providing incentive based emoluments to the faculty, enter into academic collaboration and run open learning programmes.
He said that autonomy would enable the university to further contribute towards research and educational brilliance and forwarding the mission to get an international recognition. Presently the university is having an h-index of 70, which is highest among all the universities of the state. The university is the first in the state getting NAAC ‘A’ grade within seven years of its inception and since 2002 it has consistently retained this remarkable grading.
It is notable that the research citation of the university has embarked to an average of 1200 per year whereas every teacher, at an average, has more than 125 citations annually. The contribution towards research has facilitated the university to receive abundant grants from various research funding agencies. Eight departments of the campus have received funds under UGC-SAP and six departments have funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology under DST-FIST programme. During the first phase of Rashtriya Ucchttar Shiksha Abhiyaan (RUSA), the university has received 19.46 crores. The Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC) of the university has been entitled to receive a grant of one crore to organize various programmes for faculty and scholars. Further, the HRDC has been nominated among the ten leading institutes of the country to organize a variety of courses under Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission for Teachers’ Training. The Vice-Chancellor said that presently more than 50 courses are being offered by the university. The grant of autonomy from MHRD further sensed the realization towards imparting quality education, so more job-oriented courses are on the future roadmap of the university, he said. The university has well realized its social responsibility in addition to academic contribution and therefore provisions of seat reservation for single girl child in various courses and maternity leave for girl students have incorporated in the university.