Ranchi, July 21: Seats are going begging at two prestigious central institutes of higher learning, the fact that neither has a permanent campus with hostels acting as a major deterrent for students.

Central University of Jharkhand and National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL) are struggling to fill up seats on offer, though the 2011 academic session is already underway.

Of the 440 seats on offer across 10 streams in the central university, only 241 have been filled. At NUSRL, 58 students have taken admission though 100 seats were announced.

“One of the reasons for the lack of interest among students, particularly girls, is the fact we don’t have a permanent campus. Classes and hostels are at temporary venues. However, we are hopeful of filling up the seats soon,” NUSRL’s dean (faculty) Alok Gupta said.

In a bid to admit more students, the central university will conduct a special test on July 27 for two five-year integrated programmes —indigenous culture and applied mathematics.

Earlier, admissions were finalised through a common entry test for all central universities around the country.

NUSRL’s 2011 session started on July 7 with 58 students. It has already published a fourth list inviting over 40 students to take admission by July 23. And Gupta did not rule out fifth or even sixth lists to fill up all 100 seats.

Deputy registrar of Central University of Jharkhand Kalipada Mohanta said many seats reserved for OBC, ST and SC candidates were lying vacant. While this academic session was the third for the central university, which started in 2009, for NUSRL, it was the second batch.

At present, the central university is operating out of a temporary campus at Brambe, about 30km from the state capital along Ranchi-Daltonganj road. The Brambe campus is owned by the state panchayati raj department.

NUSRL is running its show from a temporary building provided by BIT-Mesra. Its students are have been provided accommodation in various places ranging from two private apartments to a BSNL training centre hostel.

Despite the state government’s tall promises, a permanent campus eludes both cradles.

While Central University of Jharkhand is yet to get possession of the land for its proposed Kanke block campus, NUSRL has recently been given a plot near Kanke, but several formalities related to land acquisition, cabinet clearance etc still need to be resolved.