With a UGC committee recommending an additional 735 universities in India by the end of 2011-12 to enhance the enrolment rate of higher education, academicians and industry leaders feel that Orissa needs to take enabling steps to help develop more universities in the state.
“Like all other state governments, the Orissa government needs to make available land and basic infrastructure for the upcoming universities. We also need to ensure that there is a strong pool of faculty members for these universities”, said Vijay Thadani, the chairman of CII’s Education Committee and chief executive officer of NIIT Limited.
Thadani further said that quality faculty is indispensable for turning any university into a centre of excellence adding, “Orissa can attract the best faculty members by offering good opportunities for research and consulting. Moreover, the state needs to upgrade its social and educational infrastructure.”
Commenting on the issue, Santosh Mohapatra, the chairman of CII’s Orissa chapter and chief executive officer of Dhamra Port Company Limited said, “Orissa needs more universities to meet its growing demand for professionals in different industries and the state government on its part needs to provide land and infrastructure for these universities. However, we need to ensure that the quality of higher education is not undermined as the basic objective of some institutes promoted by private players is profiteering.”
“What the state needs today is quality technical institutions and institutes of excellence. The upcoming universities in Orissa need to incorporate courses in advanced mining engineering, geology, maritime science and ecological studies”, he added.
SK Mohanty, technical manager of Wipro Technologies said that apart from facilitating the development of new universities in Orissa, the state government needs to impose some regulatory standards on the upcoming universities.
The Orissa government can think of creating an independent and unbiased body comprising some distinguished academicians to deal with the issue of upcoming universities in the state, he added.
“If 735 additional universities are needed for India by the end of 2011-12 then Orissa needs 46 universities by that period. The state government needs to expedite steps to help develop more universities in Orissa as the enrolment rate in higher education in the state is 8 per cent which is lower than the national average of 10 per cent”, said Biswajeet Pattanayak, director of city-based Asian School of Business Management (ASBM).
At present, there are 388 universities in India and the UGC committee which has recommended 735 universities over and above the existing universities has worked out a formula for 20,000 students per university to raise enrolment rate for higher education from the existing 10 per cent to 15 per cent by the end of 2011-12.
The UGC committee’s suggestion for 735 additional universities in the country is in sync with the observation of the National Knowledge Commission which had pointed out that India needs 1,500 universities to become a knowledge society.
Currently, Orissa has 13 universities and among the proposed new universities in the state include Vedanta University, Sri Sri University, Icfai University, National Law University and Orissa Open University to name a few.
Among the existing technical institutes in the state which have applied for the status of deemed university include ASBM, Hi-Tech Group of Institutions, Krupajal Group of Institutions, Koustuv Group of Institutions, University College of Engineering, Burla and CV Raman College of Engineering to name a few.
“ASBM intends to develop a management university on the lines of Singapore Management University. The institute has already fulfilled all criteria set by UGC to be conferred the status of a deemed university and we are now awaiting the no objection certificate from the Orissa government. UGC has already written to the state industries department on this issue and the matter is now pending before the state government for nine months”, Pattanayak said.
Meanwhile, Pattanayak pointed out that Orissa needs universities in districts like Balangir, Kalahandi, Phulbani, Kalahandi, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar which do not have any university and has pitched for a health university in the state as well as a comprehensive university in Rourkela.
