Reliance Industries (RIL) is planning to set up a full fledged university in the state. The company is learnt to have zeroed in around 800 acres on the outskirts of Vadodara for the proposed university project. Industry observers peg the value of the land deal at around Rs 50 crore.
Apart from management and information technology, the university would offer multiple courses. The university is also expected to have tie-ups with at least two reputed foreign universities.
After roping in Bakul Dholakia, former director of IIM-A, Ahmedabad-based Adani Group has left no stone unturned in entering the education sector. Adanis are planning to establish an Institute of Infrastructure Management, a university and an Adani Knowledge Centre.
The university being planned would be a cluster of institutions hosting undergraduate as well as post-graduate courses in engineering, management and other fields while the Adani Knowledge Centre would be a large facility to train its own executives.
Another reason is lack of professional colleges in the state resulting in a large number of students moving outside the state to pursue quality education.
"Students in Gujarat are open to career opportunities not only in India but abroad. Instead of going abroad to take the same courses, we will offer high quality long-term and short-term courses for students in the state, " said Yogesh Sethi, CEO (services and education business, Indian sub-continent), VLCC Healthcare. The company plans to set up up to four beauty and health institutes in Gujarat in three years.
Estimates suggest that Gujaratis spend nearly Rs 2,500 crore a year on education outside the state.
There are 1,049 medical seats available in the state as against over 22,000 students clearing Class 12 biology stream annually. Again, with nearly 37,000 students passing out and seeking engineering and pharmacy education, only 24,000 seats are available.
Around 20,000 students go out of the state to pursue higher studies and pay an average fee of Rs 3 lakh a year plus heavy donations of around Rs 5-10 lakh.
For the Amity group, it is the growing awareness for specialisations and professional degrees in the state that is now drawing them to set up its fourth university campus in the country.
The Amity group is planning to invest around Rs 150 crore to offer full-time and distance learning programmes in disciplines such as management, IT, engineering, finance, banking, biotechnology, energy and environment, arts, fashion technology, mass communication and journalism and forensic studies.
"Ahmedabad is a big centre for education. Having established our first campus here with two programmes, we will be looking at establishing a full-fledged campus offering engineering, biotechnology, communication and other courses here," said Atul Chauhan, president of the Amity Foundation. Over 50 faculty members are expected to be recruited in the coming months.
Vadodara has also caught the attention of Royale International School of Excellence (RISE), which is in the process of setting up 10 institutes in the next three years in the city.
The campus housing all the institutes is coming up near Ajwa Garden on the outskirts of the city, spread over 100 acres. In collaboration with US-based American Academic Alliance (AAA), the institute will offer international graduate and post-graduate courses in the fields of business management, banking and finance, maritime, food processing, tourism & hospitality. Close to Rs 30 crore would be invested for the same and over 600 students are expected to graduate every year.
Meanwhile, buoyed by an increasing number of MBA aspirants from the state, the ICFAI Business School (IBS) is also planning to set up two management institutes in the state. IBS will set up an institute over 100 acres near Ahmedabad as well as a smaller institute, which will come up over another 20 acres near the state capital, Gandhinagar.
"There has been a sharp increase in the number of MBA aspirants, up from 157 for the 2006-08 batch to over 270 for the 2007-09 batch. The increase in batch size has prompted the institute to consider the establishment of a new campus at Ahmedabad," said P Bala Bhaskaran, director of IBS, Ahmedabad.
