Odisha to elevate Khallikote and GM Colleges to Unitary Universities: Expressbuzz
November 20th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Expressbuzz.com.
The State Government has decided to elevate Khallikote Autonomous College here and Gangadhar Meher College at Sambalpur to unitary university status, said Higher Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra here today.
A government appointed task force on higher education reforms had suggested upgrading these two premier autonomous colleges to university status, the Minister said while addressing a function of the Students’ Union of Khallikote College.
Mishra however stressed the need to develop necessary infrastructure facilities before the second oldest college of the State was declared a unitary university.
While at least 50 acre was required, Khallikote Autonomous College had only 16.74 acres of land in its possession.
“There is a proposal to get another 2.50 acres from transport departments garage adjoining the college”, he said.
The Minister asked the local MLAs to locate another 50 acres in the town for the college’s expansion. He also assured the students to fill up the vacant posts soon. Around 50 out of 90 posts of teaching staff are vacant in the 132-yearold college, where over 3,600 students are pursuing studies in 19 different departments, 15 of them having post-graduate departments.
Entry Filed under: Berhampur-Gopalpur-Hinjilicut area (3),GM University (proposed),Khallikote University, Berhampur (suggested),Sambaplpur-Burla-Jharsuguda-Baragarh area (4)
4 Writeup
1. rout | November 21st, 2010 at 3:14 pm
It is a welcome sign for some but for me it is not…reason being the situation prevailing at VSSUT (so called Unitary University).
Have any one thought about that Unitary University? It is an university without much infrastructure and student strength is paltry 1000 (aprox.). Attitude of Govt. of orissa’s is same as it was 20/30 years ago. There is not much expansion and VC’s hand is also tied (I presume..availability of fund). Look at the recruitment drive …did they recruit any one?…no body knows. Have they increased number of departments..answer is same. When you have only money to fend yourself then there is no point in giving all these status. What GOOD impact does it have? They remain same age old college with university Tag.
2. Abhisek | November 22nd, 2010 at 7:12 pm
The decision on Khallikote University has been pending for last 3 years. When Private Universities are not making desired progress and are entangled in controversies, building small sized Universities like Khallikote University is the only way out.
3. rout | November 23rd, 2010 at 4:12 pm
@abhisek…
I am not against any college becoming university….Whether it is your dear Khalikot or GM !!
Government should provide necessary financial support for its overall growth, in terms of increasing the student strength, no of programs offered etc etc..(Private universities operate on a business model so they do not bother much about their sustenance or finance).
4. Biswa | November 24th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
@rout:
I agree to your point to some extend.
‘Unitary University’ tag has not added much value to the VSSUT institute, other than the tag itself. It might also be such that.. there is lot of ground work in progress, which is not visible yet. This is something the University authorities and Govt can answer.
On the contrary, Ravenshaw has had shown a considerable amount of improvement after being tagged ‘Unitary University’. There has been numerous new departments/streams opened up. New radio stations/student projects taken up. A big difference is, it has a very dynamic VC, who is highly passionate about improvement and has been trying his best to keep the politicians off the Univesity management.
I believe, if we can keep the Universities out of the useless politicians hands and get a dynamic leader… the Universities can improve and move forward!