Decade on, KU’s Kupwara campus a non-starter

Decade on, KU’s Kupwara campus a non-starter

Srinagar: More than a decade after it was sanctioned, and the execution of the project was taken up, the Kupwara campus of Kashmir University remains a non-starter much to the disappointment of hundreds of students in this remote North Kashmir district and its adjoining areas.
The campus was sanctioned to give students from remote areas, including Machil, Karnah, Keran, Lolab, Langate, and other faer-flung areas an avenue to take up courses without having to travel to other parts of the valley and outside it.
The students have been left utterly disappointed with the slow pace of progress that this satellite campus of Kashmir University has been able to make in all these years.
“Every two to three years, they say that the campus will be started soon, raising hopes of students from far-flung areas, only to leave the project on a back burner again,” the students from the area said, adding, “Several generations have graduated from other parts of the valley and outside it since this campus was sanctioned.”
The local sources said that two buildings on the campus have been erected all these years and another one is under construction. “There is no defined road to the campus, neither there is any fencing – two things I think are imperative for the functioning of an educational institution,”
They said that the Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University, Dr. Nilofar Khan, recently visited the campus and announced that it will be functional by March. “But we don’t feel it will be so. There is a lot that needs to be done at the site, still. They have made such announcements in the past as well,”
The Director of the campus, Professor Parvez Ahmad, however, is upbeat and positive about the whole scenario and says that the campus will start functioning in March.
“We have started the admission process and despite a low turnout we have gone ahead with the admission process, with the hope that others will follow in due time,” the professor said.
He said that the campus stumbled into quite a few roadblocks, beginning with the transfer of land, the 2019 “change of guard”, and then subsequently the pandemic. “The buildings at the campus were used as isolation centers, and needed quite a bit of restoration after they were handed back to us,”
He said that the ball has been set into motion finally, and a total of 34 students have been enrolled for integrated courses in Physics and Energy Studies. “No other KU campus offers these courses and this campus, in that regard, will be a novel campus,” he said.
Professor said that the contractual faculty for the two departments have been already hired and advertisements have been run for permanent recruitment as well. “The campus will start in March this year and it is going to be one of the finest KU campuses. We have an academic block under construction and it is bigger than any block even the main KU campus has,”

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