Tirupati: NSU spreads wings to 15 countries with online courses

Tirupati: Making the best use of the Covid-19 pandemic situation, the National Sanskrit University (NSU) has expanded its online courses to several countries across the world. Disclosing the details, vice-chancellor Prof V Muralidhara Sharma told the media in Tirupati on Monday that as many as 4,319 students from 15 countries participated in virtual classes in 58 traditional and modern courses between April 2020 and June 2021.

These include certificate, diploma and advanced diploma courses in addition to the regular courses. Only NSU has offered live Yoga courses in which enthusiasts from many countries took part during the pandemic to get the immunity power from the Covid. From the campus, the trainers have corrected the yoga practices of a number of participants and the process is still continuing, the V-C revealed.

From July 2021 onwards, the university has been organising 27 different programmes, including Yoga and Music. In Music, Bharata Natyam, Sitar and Karnataka Vocal courses are being offered. Several students from eight countries have been participating in these courses.

The V-C stated that with the Rs 57 crore loan from Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) of ministry of higher education, a six-storeyed building complex with 167 rooms has been constructed for accommodating 501 students. Another five-storeyed classroom building complex was also built with modern facilities.

The health centre was also expanded with more facilities which now has five isolation rooms, one oxygen concentrator, a pathological lab and an ambulance. The university is now having nine hostels in which 2,200 students from 25 states are residing while pursuing their education at the NSU.

Prof Sharma said that the first convocation of the National Sanskrit University after it attained the status of Central University will be held in hybrid mode on October 20 at Mahati Auditorium in Tirupati.

The Chancellor of the university and Padma Vibhushan awardee and former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopala Swami will preside over the convocation. The head of BAPS Swaminarayan Research Institute at Akshardham in New Delhi, M M Bhadresh Das, will deliver the Convocation address.

While 67 PhD degrees and 53 gold medals will be given away at the convocation, the other degrees and diplomas will be issued online. The registrar, Commander Challa Venkateswar, Prof C Raghavan and Prof S Dakshinamurthy Sarma were present at the press conference.