Devdas babu has done it! While universities like Fakir Mohan University, North Orissa University, BPUT and Utkal University of Culture are yet to get "funded by UGC" tag, Ravenshaw which was made a university on November 15 2006 has received UGC approval to get into the "funded by UGC tag." Mega kudos to Devdas Chhotray, the VC of Ravenshaw University, who made this possible within so short a time. Following is Sambada’s report on this.
The document has many details on what kind of funding UGC provides to state universities.
July 28th, 2007
NAAC, the National Accredition and Assessment Council, an autonomous body established by UGC now does periodic assessment of colleges, universities and even specific programs. We analyze the NAAC ratings of Orissa colleges and universities below.
Among the 149 colleges of Orissa it has rated only 6 have secured an A rating. (None have an A+ rating.) They are:
Continue Reading July 15th, 2007
The following is from http://www.aicte.ernet.in/approval/MCA/MCA-List.doc (as of July 12 2007) reached via http://www.aicte.ernet.in/app_inst_new.htm after clicking the scrolling sentence in AICTE web page that says “Approval status 2007-08 as on 05-07-2007.”
The last two columns below denote “Existing intake for 2006-07” and “Approved intake for 2007-08.” Please note that they may not be properly aligned. (I am having problems with the editor when copying and pasting from word documents.)
Continue Reading July 12th, 2007
Ravenshaw University vice chancellor Mr. Devdas Chhotray gave a presentation on Ravenshaw University at Detroit, MI, USA on July 1 2007. Based on the discussion there a yahoo group has been formed for Ravenshaw alumni, friends and well-wishers. The goal of this group is to discuss, make action items, and act towards making Ravenshaw a premier university in the world.
July 3rd, 2007
Samaja reports more news on Ravenshaw University. Following are some points mentioned in their article:
- Ravenshaw has advertised for registration in its Ph.D/D.Litt/D.Sc program.
- They will semester system in the Bachelors and Masters level with half monthly examinations with four internal evaluations a year.
- Application form and admission brochure are now available in their website and May 30 is the deadline for application.
- Ravenshaw will not wait for the +3 results to come out and will finish admission based on the entrance exams by June.
- They are trying to have five year integrated M.Sc programs and if this program is established this year then they will admit students to this program from the students who have qualified for +3. The students do not have to apply separately.
- The state has released 10.5 crores to the university.
- A UGC team of experts led by Prof. S. Ramegowda (former Chairman, AICTE and former Vice-Chancellor, Karnataka University) will visit on June 12th.
Besides the above news from the Samaj article, I heard that the VC of Ravenshaw has met some Ravenshaw alumni who are in academia in Orissa and has sought their advice. This is a very good move on the VC’s part as there are some really top-notch academicians in Orissa with Ravenshaw ties.
May 26th, 2007
It seems Ravenshaw University with the help of XIMB is experimenting with on-line application. One can apply on-line at an XIMB site that is linked from the Ravenshaw University home page. But one still needs to physically mail a demand draft of the appropriate amount and a print out of the application form. One can print out the admit card from that site though.
May 11th, 2007
Recently the Vice Chancellor of Ravenshaw University made a presentation to the CM about Ravenshaw’s future. As an outcome of this presentation the Orissa government agreed to give land for a second campus of Ravenshaw. The Ravenshaw vice chancellor seems to have a lot of ideas on how to take Ravenshaw to the next level and is looking for support from all corners. If any Ravenshaw alumni or well-wisher would like to help in this goal of taking Ravenshaw to the next level, please get in touch with me.
May 4th, 2007
Ravenshaw University now has a nice web page with a lot of details, including the list of faculty and their phone numbers, the various departments, and the various courses that are offered.
April 27th, 2007
Today’s New Indian Express and Samaja report that the higher education department has proposed setting up of an education city around Naraj. As we wrote earlier several universities are coming up in this area. This includes a university by Sri Sri Ravishankar’s Art of Living, Ravenshaw university’s second campus and proposed National Law Institute. The higher education department has identified additional available land in the area and according to the above reports it is recommending that the government reserve this land for additional higher education institutions.
April 26th, 2007
Dahritri reports [1,2] that Ravenshaw will be reorganized to eight schools:
- School of Mathematics and Computer Science
- School of Physical Studies
- School of Life Sciences
- School of Social sciences
- School of Languages
- School of Commerce and management
- School of regional studies and earth sciences
- School of information and performing arts
Each of these schools will have a dean. In the coming year Ravenshaw will introduce Masters programs in (i) Biotechnology (ii) Foreign languages (iii) Business and industrial management (iv) Performing arts and (v) Geology. It will switch to the semester system at the Bachelors and Masters level.
April 20th, 2007
Ravenshaw vice chanceelor Devdas Chhotray has acted very fast on the news regarding the 1 lakh/yr scholarships for integrated M.Sc students. He has announced that Ravenshaw will start five year integrated M.Sc program from July 2007. This is reported in Sambada.
April 19th, 2007
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.
March 17th, 2007
Ravenshaw University now has UGC approval. It was only in November 2006 that it got approval from the Orissa assembly. Today’s Pioneer reports that it received UGC approval on Febriary 6th. It is now listed in the UGC website of universities in Orissa. Now it awaits the more important status of “Funded by UGC”.
UCE Burla, about which we discussed earlier in December, must be put on a similar path. It must ape BESU (Bengal Engineering and Science University) and CUSAT (Cochin University of Science and Technology) both of which are state universities and have the “Funded by UGC” status. See the UGC West Bengal and Kerala pages here and here respectively. In their attempt to improve UCE Burla, efforts are being made for it to get deemed university status. I think they should just go for a state university status and then go all out to get the “Funded by UGC” status. They should send a delegation to BESU and CUSAT to learn some of the secrets of their success.
February 26th, 2007
Picturesque Naraj-Cuttack area where Kathajodi originates from Mahanadi is on the way to become an educational hub. On the Cuttack Island in Abhinav Bidanasi there is a plan for the second campus of Ravenshaw University. On the Naraj side land has been shortlisted for NISER (National Institute of Science Education and Research) as well as the University by Shri Shri Ravishankar.
February 24th, 2007
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