Odisha HRD

Existing Universities and institutions wanting to become universties in Odisha; Sri Sri Ravishankar to visit Odisha regarding Sri Sri University

The 30.5 lakh sq feet is equivalent to 2,83,355.4066 sq meters and is equivalent to 70.0158 acres. As a comparison:

• IIT Bhubaneswar: Will have 2, 21,000 m2 (63000 m2 for academic complex and 1, 58,000 m2 for residential complex) in phase 1.
  
• NISER Bhubaneswar: 64,923 sq mts  for academic complex, 1,06,913 sq mts for residential township and 2,000 sq mts for sports and aquatic complex.

November 20th, 2011

Utkal University plans beyond the initiatives of the previous Sambalpur VC and plans to establish an engineering college

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph by Priya Abraham. 

Utkal University is set to establish an engineering college in the capital.

… “The proposal to set up a new technical college has already been discussed by the syndicate and will be taken up by the academic council. The target is to start the new institute by the next academic session. A committee of experts will be set up to finalise the project,” Utkal University vice-chancellor P.K. Sahoo told The Telegraph.

“The team would discuss technical and academic aspects of the institute. Based on its recommendations, the institute will be set up,” said Sahoo.

The college will be located on the varsity campus and will have modern facilities and equipment. “We are trying to bring in diversification. For the staff salary, pension and modernising the varsity, there is a need for adequate funds. The UGC and state government have already asked state universities to try and raise their own funds. Only then can the varsity be self sustainable,” said the vice-chancellor.

Officials said a special budget would be sanctioned to make various provisions for the proposed institute.

However, this initiative by the university has surprised many people because technical education in the state is passing through a grim phase. About 22,000 of the 38,000-odd engineering seats are lying vacant. This number is around 5,000 more than last year.

… “There is definitely a lot of scope. Utkal University is a premier university and has earned a good name at the national level. Like all other self-financing courses that we have launched, this would also be a successful one,” said PG council chairman Pradip Kumar Sarkar.

Although there is a glut of engineering seats in Odisha with more than half the available seats unfulfilled, this is still a good move. This is along the lines of the recommendation by the Yashpal committee which recommended more well rounded universities. Having an engineering college as part of the university will make Utkal a more well-rounded university. In particular, being part of a university, the engineering program can take advantage of the existing university faculty in many disciplines (especially, English, Business, Economics, Psychology, Sciences, and Mathematics) and foster many cross disciplinary programs  and research projects.

This action also shows that the new Utkal VC is a man of action and is willing to take risks. This bodes well for Utkal.

ps —  We thank Prof. Arun Pujari, the immediate past VC of Sambalpur University, for having led the way in this direction by establishing SUIIT with several engineering programs and several other innovative programs. It is unfortunate that several locals and some activists could not understand his groundbreaking contributions and lobbied to deny him a second term. We hope that the new Sambalpur VC will continue the progress than Prof. Pujari made in Sambalpur.

November 19th, 2011

Utkal University of Culture advertises for faculty positions (Deadline: Nov 30th, 2011)

November 1st, 2011

Utkal University of Culture and other institutions under the Culture Department of Odisha

The Utkal University of Culture in Bhubaneswar has the following faculties:

	Faculty of Language and Literature
	(I)	Department of Socio Linguistics
	(II)	Department of Foreign Languages
			Japanese
			Germany
			Russian
			French
			Korean
			Thai
			Burmese
			Spanish
			Italian
	Faculty of Visual Arts
			Department of Painting
			Department of Applied Art and Design
			Department of Art History and Aesthetics
	Faculty of Performing Art
			Department of Vocal Music
			Department of Instrumental Music
			Department of Drama
			Department of Dance
	Faculty of Architecture and Archaeology
			Department of Cultural Heritage and Conservation (Self-financing courses)
	Faculty of Culture Studies
			Department of Culture Studies
	Faculty of Orissan Studies
			Department of South and South East Asian Studies
	Other
			Department of Tourism and Hospitality Services (self-financing course)

The Utkal University of Culture has four government affiliated colleges. They are:

In addition the Culture Department has several other sub-ordinate offices under it. They are:

• Orissa State Archives, Bhubaneswar
• Orissa Sahitya Academi, Bhubaneswar
• Orissa Sangeet Natak Academi, Bhubaneswar
• Orissa Lalit Kala Academi, Bhubaneswar
• Orissa Urdu Academi, Bhubaneswar
• Orissan Institute of Maritime and South-East Asian Studies
• S.V. Govt. School of Art and Craft, Jeypore
• Harekrushna Mahatab State Library & Bhubaneswar Public Library, Bhubaneswar
• Orissa State Archaeology, Bhubaneswar
• Orissa State Museum, Bhubaneswar

The private colleges currently affiliated with the Utkal University of Culture are:

In addition Odisha has some related centrally funded institutions. They are:

• Institute of Hotel Management, Bhubaneswar
• Foodcraft Institute, Balangir
• Indian Institute of Handloom Technology, Baragarh
• Bhubaneswar Center of IITTM
• NIFT (National Institute of fashion Technology) Bhubaneswar
• Apparel Training and Design Center (see also here)
  • An Eastern zone hub at Bhubaneswar
  • An Eastern zone center at Rourkela
  • Eastern zone satellite centers at Berhampur, Baripada and Cuttack

In regards to the centrally funded institutions Odisha should pursue the following (please suggest more):

• An Institute of Apparel Management similar to the one in Haryana.
• Upgradation of the Bhubaneswar Center of IITTM to the level of the Gwalior center
• Upgradation of FCI Balangir to an Institute of Hotel Management
• A campus of National School of Drama

In addition the Odisha government needs to:

• Establish some (at least one) government college(s) affiliated to Utkal University of Culture in Western Odisha. Branches of Utkal University of Culture would be even better.
• Establish some research centers in culture and dances of Western Odisha and Tribal Odisha. This includes centers on Sambalpuri dance and music and Mayurbhanj chhau and other tribal  dances and music.

In the culture front, as we mentioned in https://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3624: "By looking at the web page of the Eastern Zonal Cultural Center in Kolkata, it seems like all of the infrastructure of this center is in West Bengal. … the system of zonal cultural center is not working. The GOI must expand it to all major states and establish a similar center in Odisha. Odisha CM must lobby for it and make sure it is included in the next five year plan starting from 2012."

Also the national convention of SPICMACAY will be in Ravenshaw College in 2011. The Odisha government should take advantage of that and establish a permanent center (or perhaps something bigger) of SPICMACAY in Odisha.

1 comment July 11th, 2010

Prof. Amiya Kumar Pattanayak appointed VC of Utkal University of Culture

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Prof. Amiya Kumar Pattanayak has been appointed as the new vice-chancellor of the Utkal University of Culture. …

Born in 1949, Prof Pattanayak started his academic journey in 1972. He holds a Ph.D in history and was professor in Berhampur University during 1994-2008. He was Registrar of Berhampur University, served as a warden, was also the Director of Distant Education Centre, Director of College Developmental Council and Director’s Women Studies Research Centre.

Prof Pattanayak has written six books, edited 12 books, has sixty-five research publications. 15 scholars have been awarded Ph.D under his guidance. Nine are continuing research under him at present. He has produced 37 M.Phil. scholars.

3 comments February 16th, 2010

Efforts to improve the infrastructure of Utkal University of Culture: Samaja

1 comment December 31st, 2009

Course announcements of Utkal University of Culture

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

The university announced postgraduate programmes in Culture Studies, South and South-East Asian Studies, Cultural Heritage and Conservation, Sociolinguistics (through correspondence course) and Tourism and Hospitality Services (self financing course). It also re-launched the one-year postgraduate diploma courses in Jain and Buddhist Studies, besides the six-month certificate course in Tamil language. Each of the programmes would have 30 seats.

The university has also introduced Masters degree programmes in performing arts and visual art last year has departments of drama (direction, acting and stage craft), dance (Odissi and Chhau), vocal music (Odissi and Hindustani), instrumental music (flute, violin, tabla, mardal and sitar), painting, applied art and design, art history and aesthetics and sculpture. Except the 10-seat strength department of sculpture, all other departments would have 20 seats each.

An admission test would be conducted for the aspiring students of the visual art programmes, the university sources said.

2 comments June 28th, 2008

Universities and university like institutes in and around Bhubaneswar: a map

Update: The IIT site has been changed. So the new map is as follows:

Old map:

1 comment June 20th, 2008

Little progress in Culture University – no permanent faculty : Samaja

1 comment February 24th, 2008

Utkal University of Culture’s ad for Ph.D students (from Samaja)

5 comments August 27th, 2007

Meagre state funding and incompetent leadership at Utkal University of Culture

That is my opinion after reading the following. Both the culture department of the Orissa government as well as the university leadership should be ashamed of the performance of this university. Its been 8 years since it was established in 1999 and it is yet to get the "funded by UGC" tag. Perhaps the government and the university leadership will learn and be inspred by what has been acheived at Ravenshaw University in 8 months. Ravenshaw has done it in 8 months what Utkal University of Culture has not been able to do in 8 years. Fakirmohan University, North Orissa University and BPUT leaderships should also be ashamed of their incompetence in not being able to make a case with the state government as well as UGC to get the "funded by UGC" tag. Hopefully, they will also be inspired by Ravenshaw University. Following is Dharitri’s article on Utkal University of Culture and the dire financial situation there.

2 comments July 30th, 2007

48 acres for Culture university near Madanpur

Sambada reports that 48 acres has been allocated to the Utkal University of Culture. This land is near Madanpur village in the upper right edge of the Knowledge park close to the GITA and CV Raman engineering colleges.

April 21st, 2007

Mail to CMO: looking out for all of Orissa in the HRD front

Dear Friends:

Its time to convey to the Orissa government that they need to look out for all of Orissa and not just BBSR/CTC/Puri areas.

Following is a draft letter that one can send to the CM (cmo at ori.nic.in) about developing higher education and medical opportunities outside of the BBSR/CTC/Puri area. This is a draft. Please make changes to your liking.

If I missed your favorite location, please add them in your letter.

best regards
Chitta

Continue Reading 9 comments April 11th, 2007

Land for Ravenshaw University second campus and culture university

New Indian Express reports that the Utkal University of Culture has been granted 48 acres of land in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. It does not exactly say where.

Few days back the Orissa government agreed to give 150 acres of land to Ravenshaw University  for its second campus. It also agreed to allocate a significant additional budget of 5-8 crores this year and 80+ crores over the next several years. Various news papers have reported on this and they all have different numbers. Samaja (page1, page2), Sambada and Pioneer are some of the newspapers that report this.
The newspapers list the various new departments that will be there in the new campus. They also mention that while Ravenshaw University currently has 7000 students, it is being made so as to be able to accommodate 25000 students later in this century.

1 comment March 17th, 2007