VISAKHAPATNAM: The University Grants Commission has granted Autonomy to GITAM Deemed to be University for maintaining high academic standards in higher education in the country. Talking to newsmen here in Vizag on Thursday, vice-chancellor of GITAM University Prof. M.S. Prasada Rao said that as Category-I Deemed University and with the present autonomy GITAM will have the freedom to hire foreign faculty, enrol foreign students, give incentive-based emoluments to the faculty and enter into academic collaborations.
The university is also planning to start new courses, academic department and off-campus centres wherever necessary, he added. Out of 140 deemed universities, only 11 universities are conferred with Autonomy status along with GITAM, the vice-chancellor said. He said that the Graded Autonomy status empowers GITAM to open research parks, incubation centres and university society linkage centres. He added that the university is planning to start new courses like FinTech, Blockchain technology, Big Data Analytics, Cyber Security which are in high demand. He said that granting Autonomy is a great opportunity to deemed universities like GITAM.
The University vice-chancellor said that the Autonomy will give a lot of scope to GITAM to collaborate with renowned foreign universities in teaching and research. In this direction GITAM has recently signed a MoU with Saint-Petersburg State Marine Technical University, Russia to offer a dual-degree programme in Ship Building and Ship Power and automation systems. He briefed that Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM) has three picturesque campuses at Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Bengaluru with 15 institutes, 10 faculties, 52 departments and 10 research centres.
The University has been offering 190 UG, PG, Doctoral and others programmes in diverse disciplines such as Technology, Science, Pharmacy, Architecture, Management, International Business, Social Sciences, Languages, Law, Medicine, Nursing and Gandhian Studies. The Centre for Distance Learning, established in 2009, has been successfully offering 13 UG, PG and Diploma programmes in Literature, Management, Science and Social Sciences.
