Paucity of funds has forced the University of Mumbai to rope in the corporate sector to help set up the new sub-centre at Thane.
Officials of the University said the corporates had been invited to contribute towards the infrastructural set up of the sub-centre and in exchange, the University will provide courses that are required by the corporates.
Dr Vijay Joshi, chief advisor of the Thane sub-centre, said that while the Thane Municipal Corporation had allocated seven acres of land for the MU complex, the University would have to arrange for the expenses it would incur towards the developmental cost of the campus.
“As the University is facing a shortage of funds, we had to invite corporates,” Dr Joshi said.
The University has allocated only `50 lakh in the 2012-13 budget for the development of the sub-centres at Thane, Dombivali-Kalyan and Ratnagiri. Recently, vice-chancellor Dr Rajan Welukar had also said that as MU caters to more than six lakh students, the `300 crore sanctioned for it by the state government is insufficient.
“We are in talks with interested corporates to sponsor various parts of the sub-centres,” said Dr Joshi.
Dr Joshi added that though there is an urgent need for getting the Thane sub-centre up and running immediately, work on it would be done in a phased manner depending on the corporates’ funding. There are nearly 85,000 students who are studying in Thane and have to come all the way to the Kalina campus for examination or administrative related work. The sub-centre will resolve this issue.