Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will lay the foundation stone of the National University of Law by the end of December. Sources said though the exact official date has not been finalised, the foundation stone laying ceremony is expected to be held on December 30.
The founding stone for the university will be laid on Brajabiharipur Mouza near CDA. The Government will provide one-time contribution of Rs 5 crore for the project. The Government will also provide 30 acre land for the project. The Law University will be built on the line of its counterpart in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.
While the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court will be the Chancellor of the University, Chief Justice of Supreme Court will be the visiting chairman of the newly formed Governing board.
Note: As per a recent Economic Times article, currently there are 7 National Law Universities. They are in Bangalore, Bhopal, Raipur, Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Gandhinagar and Kolkata. There is plan that in 2008 they will have a common entrance exam. The proposed National Law University in Orissa should immediately attempt to join this group.
I heard from some sources that IIIT Bhubaneswar has now received AICTE approval to start M.Tech courses. Their ad for admission will come out in a couple of days. They are also in the process of hiring 4 faculty, two of which have Ph.D.
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has introduced a student developmental program – "Convergence of Conventional Education and Distance Learning".
The program was inaugurated by Union Human Resource Development Minister Mr. Arjun Singh on the foundation day of the varsity.
As per the scheme, students pursuing courses in colleges through the conventional system can simultaneously enroll for the same level degrees at IGNOU. For this purpose, a student needs to complete the first year of the course through the conventional system.
However, the second year can be pursued via the distance mode.
The credit transfer will be made possible through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between IGNOU and the concerned university.
Furthermore, IGNOU would identify some new programs in collaboration with the interested university to offer degrees jointly to students.
Both universities can also offer under-graduate and post-graduate courses of IGNOU.
The long-standing demand of the alumni and students of University College of Engineering (UCE), Burla, has been met with the varsity being registered under Societies Act on Tuesday. This would pave way for the engineering college to stake for Deemed University status.
It has been registered as Orissa Institute of Technology (OIT) at Sambalpur. The change in the statute of Biju Pattnaik University of Technology BPUT) in the Assembly bifurcating OIT from under its ambit will follow. Only after ratification by the State Assembly, the OIT will move UGC for Deemed University status.
The Deemed University status would enable the Engineering College get more funds besides help in giving their existing infrastructure a facelift. The College is already bestowed with 200 acres of land and can acquire another 300 acres adjacent to the present campus if needed.
Infosys has donated Rs.1 crore to IIIT-Bhubaneswar.
… It is worthwhile to mention that the State Government decided to set up the “International Institute of Information Technology” (IIIT) at Bhubaneswar.
It has been established as a state initiative project, similar to the ones at Bangalore and Hyderabad.
IIIT-Bh, primarily has been set up to meet the urgent need for appropriate Human Resource, which is the most critical input for the sustained growth of IT and ITES industries.
IIIT-Bh aims to be a World Class institute with an objective to impart higher education and undertake advanced research in the field of Information and Communication Technology.
The State Government has allotted Ac 23.24 of prime land at Gothapatna, Bhubaneswar, free of cost.
The government has committed a financial grant of Rs.10 crore towards start up capital expenses and a recurring annual grant of Rs.2 crores for the first three years.
During the period the institute will have to develop enough strength to stand on its own.
This would be a completely autonomous institute with sustained support from industries.
IIIT shall function at OCAC building for the initial two years till the construction of its own permanent infrastructure at Gothapatna is completed.
The institute shall offer M.Tech and Doctoral Programme in Computer Science.
AICTE has already issued Letter of Intent and shall visit IIIT Bhubaneswar on 22 November for inspection of the necessary academic infrastructure.
It is planned to enroll students during January 2008 after getting the final approval of AICTE.
Other software majors like TCS, Wipro, MindTree etc. have also shown interest in instituting Chair Professors in IIIT-Bh.
… If sources are to be believed, the varsity is seriously planning to raise the intake capacity of the government institutions.
The technical university’s four constituent colleges – University College of Engineering (UCE), Burla, College of Engineering and Technology (CET), Bhubaneswar, Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology (IGIT), Saranga, and Orissa School of Mining Engineering (OSME), Keonjhar – impart different courses in engineering streams.
While UCE has seven disciplines with an intake capacity of about 270, annual approved strength of CET is 340 in as many as nine streams. Similarly, IGIT admits 150 students in five programmes, while OSME’s degree streams intake is about 90.
However, the BPUT management appears to believe that the government colleges are in need of increasing their intake capacity which will strengthen them financially.
While UCE, Burla and CET, Bhubaneswar, are primarily dependent on government, it is OSME (degree stream) which is self-sufficient.
In the last board of management meeting of the varsity, it was strongly felt that the private colleges have a much larger student strength compared to their government counterparts that contribute significantly to their solvency.
It has agreed that an increased intake in government constituent colleges is the need of the hour where the number of qualified teachers and overall infrastructure is better compared to those available in the private colleges.
A way out is to introduce self-financing models for the programmes. In fact, two engineering streams in UCE, Burla and four subjects in CET here are self-financing but the funds are not sufficient to support the increasing needs.
Works of the extension campus of the Ravenshaw Unitary University would be started soon and the university would also be made one of the best study destinations in the country, said senior BJD leader and Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra .
He was addressing the concluding day of the annual function of the University Students’ Union on Tuesday.
Recollecting the past glory of the historic educational institution of the State, he further added that funds would not be a major problem for growth of the Ravenshaw University. The institution has produced so many scholars in various fields and it would continue its magic in the future too, he hoped.
… The system was approved by a joint meeting of the university top brass with the management of colleges. It will be installed on a pilot basis in dozen colleges in the City and another two in Rourkela where the university is headquartered.
The system will come into effect by November 25 as the two software vendors which were roped in are ready with the customised programme.
Under the system, each member of the faculty would be required to enter the curriculum she/he is assigned to complete each day and the actual progress.
The faculty members will also indicate the attendance in a class so that the university can have a clear view on the students’ perfor mance.
The programmes are so designed that it will take a teacher about 10 minutes to post the day’s report.
“The report entry will be keyword-based. All that a teacher has to do is drag and drop words to indicate the subject he taught in a day,” BPUT Vice-Chancellor Omkar Nath Mohanty told this paper.
Besides, the university and college managements agreed to ban inter-college migration of teachers during the period from November 1 till July 30, 2008.
Only if teachers have valid grounds for a migration then only would they be allowed but after examination by a committee. Similarly, the teachers would be given a registration number by the varsity, subject to appearance before a selection committee.
It has also been decided to go ahead with the CCTV installation project. It has been estimated at Rs 2.5 lakh with 20 cameras, a central software and an access to the server.
