A week after the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) refused any such plan for satellite campus or branches by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Indian institute of Management (IIMs), administration of JNU on Monday said the idea of opening a satellite campus of the varsity is “still there”.
On December 31, Union Minister of State for HRD Satyapal Singh told the Lok Sabha, “There is no plan for opening of a satellite campus or branches by JNU, IITs or IIMs. As a policy, the government does not encourage establishment of satellite campuses of such educational institutions.”
In October last year, the Vice-Chancellor (VC) Jagadesh Kumar announced that the varsity is planning to set up a satellite campus outside the national capital region (NCR) with an aim to make the university accessible to more students. However, the JNU administration said that the Varsity has not written yet to the HRD Ministry about the satellite project.
“We have not written to the HRD Ministry about the satellite campus. If the varsity somehow thinks about the possibility or the need for a satellite campus, we do not need money from the government if we can do on our own by rising funds in different ways,” said a JNU official.