HOW KERALA DIGITAL UNIVERSITY TOOK OFF

The newly-formed Digital University of Kerala has made some rapid advancements over the past year. Since admitting its first batch of students in 2021, it has set up two centres of excellence (COE) with three more in the works. The university has also made a major leap in becoming financially self-sustaining, raising funds through digital transformation projects and consultancy. Vice-chancellor Saji Gopinath spoke to Careers360 about the transformation of Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Kerala (IIITM-K) into Digital University Kerala which, in just one year, did "six to seven times" the activities IIITM-K did. Edited excerpts below.

-  Atul Krishna

Q. What major developments did the Digital University see in the past one year?

A. The major advancement was in the area of research. We could actually set up two large centres of excellence (CoE), both national centres. One is on the internet of things (IOT) and the other, on graphene [a nanomaterial]. This year, in the graphene centre, we are providing scholarships for M.Tech students interested to work in a related area.

The key model we have adopted is that we bring lots of projects in both research and development from industry and provide students the opportunity to work and earn through them. They can recoup at least around 50 percent of the fees they paid and, along with their classroom training, they also get handson training in the campus itself.

We had good PhD admissions. The university is almost self-sustaining, from its own internal projects and other grants. We provide scholarships of Rs 20,000 per month in the first year and Rs 25,000 per month in the second year for all PhD students. We don't charge anything from PhD students. If they are not interested, they have other proje For M.Tech, we have the earnwhile-learn programme in which they can participate in the live projects of the university. Around 25 percent of M.Tech students have full scholarships now.

Q. You had said that the aim is to depend on student fees for just 40 to 50 percent of the university's funds. Are you on the right path?

A. If I look at my last year's budget, only 30 percent is coming from fees and government grants, 70 percent we generated through our other projects. Moving further, we will actually look more into that area. We want to make the courses affordable. Although they would still have to pay the fee, we are looking at making it almost free for students with subsidies from projects.