Odisha HRD

Rejoinder to “Vedanta University: a flawed pipe dream”

August 29th, 2007

Following is a rejoinder to a recent Hindu article titled "Vedanta University: a flawed pipe dream,"  written by Philip G. Altbach.

While it is possible that Vedanta University, may not turn out as envisioned, it is definitely not a flawed pipe dream. We now show why some of the
arguments given in the above article is flawed.

1. This article talks about $1 billion (the number $3 billion is thrown as an afterthought towards the end of the article) and how it is not a lot money. First, Vedanta University folks have talked about $3 billion, not $1 billion. The $1 billion number is the number that Mr. Agrawal has pledged to contribute; not the number he thinks the university needs. He thinks the later number to be $3 billion. If one wonders where the rest of the $2 billion is supposed to come, then there are two likely sources: (i) the tuition paid by the students and (ii) the use of the real estate in the planned city around the Vedanta University.

Next, lets look at the budget of some of the existing Indian institutions:

• The 7 IITs had a budget of 683.5 crores in 2006-07 and a budget of 1553.70 crores (taking into account the expansion plan) for 2007-08.
• The Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore had a budget of 168 crores in 2006-07 and 283 crores for 2007-08.
• The 6 IIMs had a budget of 74 crores in 2006-07 and a budget of 144 crores for 2007-08.
• UGC had a budget of 2700.17 crores in 2006-07 and 3763.52 crores in 2007-08. This include funding about 20 central universities (does not include IGNOU)
• IGNOU had a budget of 91 crores in 2006-07 and a budget of 98.2 crores in 2007-08.
• SPA (School of Planning and Architecture) had a budget of 10.20 crores in 2006-07 and 22.30 crores in 2007-08.
• National Institute of Design had a budget of 11.25 crores in 2006-07 and 20.25 crores in 2007-08.
• Indian Statistical Institute had a budget of 59.14 crores in 2006-07 and 73.01 crores in 2007-08.
• AIIMS Delhi had a budget of 490 crores in 2006-07 as well as 2007-08.
• The new IISERs are to be made at a cost of 500 crores each (over a period of 5-7 years)
• The new IITs are to be made at a cost of 1000 crores each (over a period of 5-7 years)
• The new central universities are to be made at a cost of 300 crores each (over a period of 5-7 years)
• The new AIIMS-like institutes are to be made at an expense of 322 crores each.

What Vedanta University folks have said is that they will spend $1 billion in the initial phase (i.e. Rs 4000 crores) and $3 billion (Rs 12,000 crores) over the next 10-15 years.

Based on the estimates about Rs 4000 crores can be used to build two new IITs (1000 crore*2) + two new IISERs (500 crores*2) + two new central universities (300 crores*2) + two new IIMs (150 crores estimate) + a new National Institute of Design (100 crores estimate). The recurring cost of these would be at 2006-07 estimates would be 2 IITs (200 crores total), two IISERs (200 crores total), two central universities (200 crores), two IIMs (30 crores), an NID (12 crores) = 650 crores. That is about 650/(8000) = 8.125% of the remaining $2 billion of the Vedanta University estimate which is a fairly small percentage of interest. (The Indian market has been making much more in recent years.)

2. The article says: "No research university in the world has 100,000 students or even anything close."

As per, http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/stuinfo.php#enroll_large following are some large research universities in the US

Arizona State University, Main Campus	51,612
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	51,175
The Ohio State University	50,504
University of Texas, Austin	49,696
University of Florida	49,693
Michigan State University	45,166
Texas A&M University, College Station	44,910
University of Illinois, Urbana	41,862
University of Wisconsin, Madison	41,447
Pennsylvania State University, University Park	40,709

As per http://www.asu.edu/enroll/news/news2.html ASU will have 90,000 students in its campuses by 2020. (Note that all its campuses are in the Phoenix metro area. It is not like the multi-campus UC system or U of Texas system.)

So Vedanta’s goal of 100,000 students around the same time is not that different.

3. Location: It seems the author does not have much idea about the location. The Vedanta University location is about 30 miles from the outer periphery (read Khurda) of Bhubaneswar metropolitan area (the capital of Orissa) . Bhubaneswar is very well connected with the rest of the country both by train ( BBSR , Khurda Rd Schedules, Puri Schedules) and by plane and it is expected to have international flights within a year or two . The Bhubaneswar metropolitan area has a current population of 1.6 million and at the rate it is growing (both in area and population) it is likely that by 2020 it will be more than 3 million and its periphery would be close to (if not completely engulfing) Vedanta University.

4. India is hungry for good higher education and people are willing to pay for it. May be the example of KIIT, Bhubaneswar (Orissa) will open the eyes of the author. KIIT was started in 1992 by three young people with an initial investment of few thousand rupees. In 15 years it has programs in multiple fields (engineering, management, medical science, Rural management, biotechnology, Social Sciences, Dentistry, Diploma, ITI, international high schoo l) and is a deemed university. The growth and revenue of ICFAI and Amity also illustrates the revenue potential. Although none of the above are research universities, Vedanta University can collect similar revenues and spend a big part of it in research.

So it is not unreasonable that Vedanta University will have enough students paying enough in tuition to sustain it. Moreover, one should not take the real estate aspect of Vedanta University lightly. With 6000 acres, there will be enough land left beyond the core university, to earn a handsome income, which can then be ploughed into Vedanta University’s research programs. Currently, Bhubaneswar is a destination for many IT companies for their development centers. It has the big 4 of India (Wipro, Infosys, TCS and Satyam), IBM and many small and medium sized IT companies. With a top-notch environment the research park around Vedanta university should be able to attract research divisions of international companies.

Bhubaneswar metropolitan area has 26 engineering colleges (at least 5 more will start operating in the coming year) , 7 existing universities, several more in the making, etc. etc. Please see the right column of https://www.orissalinks.com/  to get an idea of the existing and expected educational infrastructure of greater Bhubaneswar.

Entry Filed under: Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri- Khurda area (1),Colleges,Rebuttals to opposition arguments and unsubstantiated rumours,Vedanta University, Puri