Church plans Catholic university in Bangalore

KOCHI:  Disappointed over the ‘non-proactive attitude’ of the central and  state governments, the Syro-Malabar Church plans to set up the proposed  Catholic university outside Kerala. Though the plan of the Church  authorities was to acquire land and set up the campus here, they have now  decided to take over the Bangalore-based St John Charitable Trust under which various educational institutions function.Institutions under the trust include nursing colleges which offer BSc and MSc in nursing, a pharmacy college, a business school and an ICSE higher secondary school.“There were no proactive steps from the government to our proposal to set up the university in Kerala. Our aim was to bring in a global perspective to the education sector in state,” V C Sebastian, secretary, Syro-Malabar Church Commission for Laity, said. Besides, the state government has not framed its policy on deemed   universities while Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have the same.“The lethargic attitude of the authorities prompted us to think of possibilities outside the state. First, we thought of acquiring land and setting up the campus, but considering the time it would take we decided to  take over an existing institution and then get the status of a university,”  Sebastian said.The Commission for Laity is taking over the trust after paying a liability of `16 crore. “The St John Trust has got sanction for a medical college. We will construct the medical college,” Sebastian said and added that the five-member trust had three of its representatives on the board. The institutions under the trust will soon be wholly managed by the Commission for Laity.A project which had the benediction of the Church authorities, the Catholic University was an initiative of the Syro-Malabar Church Commission for Laity. The proposed university was to come up at a high-range location with an eco-friendly campus spread over 1,000-1,500 acres. The plan was to start the first phase of university in the next academic year. It was planned in such a manner that the university would offer engineering, medicine and other arts and science courses.