AMU Malappuram Campus: planned centre for higher education, now only a centre for distance education

Perinthalmanna (Malappuram): Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of much-anticipated Aligarh Muslim University's (AMU) Centre in Malappuram, Kerala where there is not much opportunities for higher studies. The university's Malappuram centre was established on February 28, 2011 in a temporary facility on 385 acres of land acquired by the state government at Perinthalmanna, Chelamala in Malappuram District.

It was said that the Malappuram Campus would become an independent university by 2020. Apart from science and arts courses, it was also announced that they would start with medical and engineering colleges and allied courses. However, as of now, other than the preliminary courses, the campus only has only a few courses for distance education.

In addition to the three regular courses, a significant step taken was by declaring it as a regional centre for distance education courses. Distance education courses includes Plus Two, B.Com, B.Sc Computer Science and BLIS degree courses and M.Com (PG).

The Malappuram Centre currently offers 20 courses, including PG Diploma in Journalism, Guidance and Counseling, Computer Programming, Marketing Management and Certified courses such as Certificate in Information Technology and Hardware and Networking Technology. Everything mentioned above works under the university. In addition, the UGC has sought approval for MBA, 15 undergraduate courses and eight postgraduate courses.

The Campus which is expected to introduce major courses and departments and further transform itself into an independent university has only stunted growth within ten years. The neglecting stance of the central government, has not yet changed even after ten years.

An amount of only Rs 104.93 crore had been approved for the master plan of the Campus which costs 1200 crore. Of this, only 60 crore was sanctioned for development till today. 60 seats for BA LLB, 60 seats for MBA and 50 seats for B.Ed are the only regular courses that started in 2010-11. In addition to this, permission was sought for about 20 undergraduate and postgraduate courses, but the Central Government did not consider it.

The proposal was submitted in 2017 for 20 courses and one polytechnic with trades that are not available in Kerala. Even if it is approved by the university, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development should be kind enough to start the course. Kerala's Higher Education Minister K.T Jaleel had said in the Assembly a year ago that if the Centre does not start these courses, the state will reclaim the land and start new institutions.