Jadavpur University will observe its first Alumni Day on January 4 to foster its bond with former students so the fundraising drive, which has been modest so far, can be scaled up.

The university, encountering a funds crunch, has invited all its former students to the inaugural alumni day.

The JU pro-vice-chancellor, who heads the alumni cell, said they wanted to reach out to the former students and start networking “in a very structured manner so the fundraising scale” could be bettered.

On Wednesday, pro-VC Amitava Datta said: “We want to reach out to our former students in a very structured way as it happens in the IITs and overseas institutes....We cannot immediately match the IITs in fundraising. But we have started taking baby steps towards that direction.”

JU’s fundraising through former students has remained restricted to the range of ₹30 to 40 lakh a year. Many former students blame the university for failing to reach out to them and motivate them to make generous offers.

A former student of JU’s civil engineering department who did his MTech from IIT Madras told Metro recently IIT Madras last year raised ₹157 crore from its former students.

Parikshit Guha attributed this to the “outstanding networking drive that IIT Madras maintains with its former
students”. “We keep receiving emails... every week about the initiatives undertaken by
the IIT...This is how we feel connected.”