AHMEDABAD: Centre for Environment Planning and Technology (CEPT) is heading towards self-financed status and autonomy. The announcement came at the tenth convocation of CEPT, where its director said this move was essential to improve diversity and have a cosmopolitan mix in the student body.

"Last year, I mentioned that by slowly reducing our financial dependence on the Government of Gujarat, we hope to regain autonomy and thus admit at least one half of our undergraduate students from anywhere in India --thereby improving the diversity and cosmopolitan mix of our student body -which has been one of the core strengths of this institution," CEPT director Bimal Patel said on Saturday at the convocation ceremony, where 420 students were awarded their degrees.

"A couple of weeks ago, we sent our application to the Government of Gujarat to become completely self-financed. Till last year, we were receiving approximately 12% of our total annual costs as grants from the government--primarily for the three undergraduate programs in Architecture, Building Construction and Interior Design," Patel said.

"With this first step, we believe that very soon, we will be considered at par with other self-financed institutes in the state. Eventually, we will be able to increase diversity in our incoming class and start re-establishing the cosmopolitan character of our University," Patel added.