Ignorant attitude hurting Sambalpur
October 19th, 2011
Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.
… the debate over Pujari’s brainchild SU Institute of Information Technology (SUIIT) has divided faculty in the varsity and educationists in the region.
While a section of them term the less than two-year old institute as the biggest success story for the varsity, others dismiss it as the culprit ruining traditional departments.
…Sadhu Charan Panda, former VC of Utkal University of Culture and a former faculty member of SU said SUIIT is the best thing that has happened to the university and to Sambalpur region to be relevant with the changing time and technology. "In less than two years of its existence, it has already attracted state-wide attention," he said.
Panda cautioned that an institutional mechanism should be put in place so that SUIIT continues to excel.
Established in 2010 as an autonomous constituent of SU, the institute imparting MCA, BTech, MTech and MSc in computer science, MSc (electronics) and MSc (bioinformatics) has proved to be a sought after institute in the region. Students from the institutes have got lucrative paid summer internships while several software companies have shown interest to come for campus recruitments, sources said. "Such a thing was an unheard of possibility for the varsity a year ago," pointed out a varsity teacher.
While the state government had given an initial budget of Rs 10 crore in 2009-10 for the institute, Rs 5 crore from Directorate of Distance and Continuing Education (DDCE) was given to it for construction of its buildings inside the varsity.
Not all are convinced with the "rare success story" eulogy for SUIIT. "Most of the courses being offered by the SUIIT were pulled out from different existing departments. It was not a new thing," said Prof B K Tripathy, senior-most professor in the university.
Electronics was taken out of physics department, computer science from mathematics while bioinformatics was pulled out from life sciences department.
These courses were already offered by the varsity, Prof Tripathy said, adding whether the consolidation has done wonders will be known after the first batch comes out of SUIIT next year.
With the varsity administration concentrating solely on SUIIT, other departments were suffering, said a teacher, adding "the varsity is getting reduced to an engineering college." Some teachers and the students’ union have questioned the logic of starting B Tech in SU.
"Most engineering colleges are not getting students for B Tech and are on the verge of closure. The VSS University of Technology, three km away from SU, is offering such a course. There was no need to start it here," reasoned Karunakar Supkar, chancellor’s nominee in the Syndicate.
The students’ union has objected to undergraduate courses being offered in the varsity where all other courses are at the post-graduate level. "The varsity was exclusively for PG students. Starting an undergraduate course was diluting its character, which is unacceptable," said student union general secretary Asis Chand.
The people with the view in blue should checkout the top universities in the world and whether they have undergraduate programs or not.
In regards to the view in yellow, Prof. Karunakar Supkar should check the statistics of what percentage of students in VSSUT are from the Sambalpur area and what percentage of students in SUIIT are from the Sambalpur area. My guess is that there are very few Sambalpur area students in VSSUT while a much larger percentage of the students in SUIIT will be from the Sambalpur area.
In previous articles we have highlighted many of the achievements of Prof. Arun Pujari. If he is not allowed a second 3 year tenure at Sambalpur University, that would be a big loss for Sambalpur University and Sambalpur.
Entry Filed under: Sambalpur University,Sambaplpur-Burla-Jharsuguda-Baragarh area (4)
8 Writeup
1. Abhishek | October 19th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Extremely unfortunate to see educated mass not getting the point.
2. PRABHAT PUROHIT | October 19th, 2011 at 11:15 pm
Sir,
I am 2010 batch VSSUT. I have previously also sent a email before 1 yr to you.Sir i do give respect to ur thought.
1.But really can it make SU tobe in tops in recent future ..U have shown Utkal university was on 21 rank without having such type of courses…
2.VSSUT is struggling after two yrs of getting university status..
no huge special funding till yet.i don’t think this type of courses which just km away shouldn’t be opened …..This will give a bad and detoriating impact to its current science programme,which r struggling since 1967 .Use that 15 crores on strengthening ur reserch programme………….
3.As VSSUT. VSS medical ,SU r in a small town whose campuses r adjacent to each other should have a collaboration between them e.g. A common MBA programme can be shared between VSSUT and SU such that we can get max output ..we can share our faculty etc..where both r suffering from faculties deficiencies ….etc………We can have a Bio tech branch shared between VSSUT and VSS medical. etc………Such that a future world class university will be ready in a integrated campus so to compete globally….
4.And finally what u have told about sbp region all these are state university ……all students to these institutes will come on merit basis …if with out having standard we will run the institute with our local student then I don’t think it will be a matter of wise….
3. Chitta Baral | October 20th, 2011 at 12:08 am
My hunch is that in regards to the state funded engineering colleges, students from all over Odisha go to all the colleges. On the other hand, in many of the state universities (particularly, Berhampur U, Sambalpur U, FM U, and NOU) there is a high percentage of local students. So locals get more benefited by them.
On making Sambalpur U a top university, one should read the earlier articles in this site about what Prof. Arun Pujari has done and tried to do in his 3 years. It is very had to do something in 3 years and he has done more than any other VC in any university in Odisha that I know of. I believe, if he is given another 3 year term, he will further improve Sambalpur U a lot.
4. Biswa | October 20th, 2011 at 12:30 am
I do agree with the statement ‘Most engineering colleges are not getting students for B Tech and are on the verge of closure.’
We definitely need more educational institutes imparting higher educations, in the country in general, Odisha in particular.
But, is Professional Institution = Engineering Institution?
And again.. is Engineering education = IT study only?
I am clearly seeing it to be a revenue-generation machinery.
IT as a higher education, is definitely over-crowded and has diminishing demand.
I would expect SU/Utkal/Ravenshaw Universities to focus more on the undertapped areas for imparting higher education… like bio-tech, agriculture-research, automobile, alternate-energy, linguistic research etc.
We also need to change our mentality. As students, we always opt for ‘Job-oriented’ study. Our education is so costly that, most people can not afford to do a second course study. People in western countries try to do Masters in multiple subjects, if they are not satisfied in their masters in their first subject. People go back to school in their 40s too. And in our country, once we start earning, we hardly visit back to school.
5. Chitta Baral | October 20th, 2011 at 1:50 am
The VC Prof. Arun Pujari is on leave from Central University in Hyderabad where he was a professor (and at one point Dean) of Computer Science. He is a native of western Odisha; most likely Sambalpur and wanted to do something lasting for the area. One of his goals was to establish a IIIT like institute for the growth of Sambalpur and he took the initial steps for it. If Sambalpur people really do not want a IIIT type institute, may be that institute should be moved to some place where people want it. Plenty of places in the rest of Odisha would love to have a IIIT type institute.
The arguments against SUIIIT is a perfect example of the mentality that contributes to keeping Sambalpur behind.
6. Abhishek | October 20th, 2011 at 11:28 am
I completely agree with you Sir. SUIIT is a fine example of ‘out of box’ thinking. In fact other univeristies should take a leaf out of Prof. Pujari’s books and emulate it. In fact specialised schools dedicated to space science, bio-sciences and other frontier areas can be set up by these univerisites and be nurtured by their expertise (infrastructure, faculty, brand amongst others). How does it matter whether it immediately benefits the local student population or not, in the long run, it is bound to benefit the area and the state. IITs, IIMs, National Law Schools and similar niche insititutes of national importance rarely cater to just the local population. These institutions act like triggers for the development of the city/ town/area they are located in, provide more exposure to the local people and increase the aspiration levels. There is so much indirect benefit flowing from them, albeit more in the non-tangible sense. As regards, universities providing UG courses, why should that again be a bone of contention? If anything, going forward, that will lead to better synergies between the UG and PG batches. Why is all this clearly lost on the people of the area to whom it should matter the most!
7. jitu | October 20th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
i am from sambalpur and i support suiit. the statements made by some prof. and student union is relay hurting. why don\’t they understand that its a IIIT type institution.? if suiit will attract some companies for campus requirment. why dont they understand that some dept like math,statistic,mba are going to benefited by it. what all is going on is nothing else than politics….
8. Ranjan Nayak | October 20th, 2011 at 7:06 pm
There’s no harm in starting an UG programme in a university. The so called deemed universities are just giving UG programmes only. So, by starting an UG programme in a university the basic definition of university wont get changed. But, what’s more important is if they’ll be able to mainten the quality of the course and not making it like just another engg college providing B.Tech course. Looking at the track record of Prof Pujari, it seems he can really make it an excellent course. If they can make the course more research oriented and design the course in a unique way then it would be really good.