THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The lethargic attitude of the university officials and the students has left a sophisticated Video Conferencing and Webcasting Centre on the Kariavattom Campus of the Kerala University (KU) literally unused since its inauguration over a year ago. The University Grants Commission (UGC)-funded project had cost Rs 10 lakh at the time.Inaugurated by the then Education Minister M A Baby on July 27, 2010, the video-conferencing facility enables interaction between the University Vice Chancellor and the academics and officials on the Kariavattom campus from the VC’s office at Palayam. Other facilities include a special room which can seat up to 20 persons and a well set up hall that can be equipped with more than 30 computers. The centre is managed by the University Service Instrumentation Centre.The webcasting facility allows campus-wide telecasting of events and functions held at the university’s Kariavattom and Palayam campuses. The webcasting is done through the university website, www.keralauniversity.ac.in, via Local Area Network (LAN).More than a 100 seminars were organised by various departments of the university after the centre was inaugurated, but not a single one was webcast using the facility."Webcasting of lectures by academics of international repute and seminars which have inter-departmental relevance would contribute positively to improving academics in the university. But the heads of departments and the students are not acquainted with this facility,’’ said Achuthsankar S Nair, director of the Centre for Bioinformatics, Kerala University.There, however, have been instances when the webcasting facility was used to full advantage. In November 2010, students, protesting against a delay in the construction of a ladies hostel, used the video conferencing facility to interact with Vice Chancellor Dr A Jayakrishnan. But such instances have been few and far between at best. Only on two other occasions was this facility used - for meetings between the VC and heads of departments."The video conferencing facility is used only for the trivial meetings now. But if the students are acquainted with the webcasting facility, a 24-hour working centre will be set up to enable the students on the campus to seek clarifications on academic matters. The university is planning to network computers of the Head of the Departments so that they can easily participate in meetings with the Vice Chancellor. But this will cost around Rs 50 lakh,’’ said N Nagarajan, the head of the University Service Instrumentation Centre. As its head, Nagarajan is in charge of the Video Conferencing and Webcasting Facility.The facility, which cost Rs 10 lakh, was funded by the UGC under the National Knowledge Network Plan to provide network connectivity with universities across India.
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