Under the Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA), Lucknow University (LU) in Uttar Pradesh is set to receive an upgradation and will soon turn into a research and multi-disciplinary education university after it receives the Rs 100 crore grant under the scheme, as per an IANS report.
The Lucknow University Vice-Chancellor, Alok Kumar Rai, said that the university had planned to use 50 per cent of the funds to consolidate its research facilities while the remaining amount will be used to ensure the availability of all required infrastructure on the campus for students to avail of the multi-disciplinary education.
Rai also added that the prime focus of the university is to develop a centralised research facility on the campus which will be broadly divided into three categories of research, namely, life sciences, physical sciences, and technical research.
Other developments would include
1) Developing a cluster-computing facility where all information and technology-related work could be carried out
2) Making e-software for bioinformatics, statistics, economics, and others available in the library so that respective departments can carry out research
3) Making LU a 100 per cent WiFi campus
4) Strengthening the infrastructure by revamping undergraduate and postgraduate classrooms mainly in the Arts Quadrangle/Canning College which is over 100 years old.
5) Revamping of the historical Lal Baradari located in the heart of the campus.
6) Revamping teacher's quarters
7) Proposal of a five-storey lecture theatre building in the university’s Atal block which sprawls over 30,000 feet of land.
8) Building lecture theatre buildings on campus enabling the university to hold big national-level examinations, conferences, conclaves, academic events, and more
9) Sports infrastructure to be given a further push by creating new tracks and courts
LU was one of the 25 universities to be chosen under PM's USHA grant. The University scored the highest in the test of parameters for the grant. In all, Uttar Pradesh universities received the maximum grant of Rs 740 crore, IANS reported.