Spreading higher education HRD resources across Orissa through new initiatives
The recent announcements of the locations of the 30 central universities, new IITs and IIMs and earlier announcements of IISERs shows how the Government of India has corrected the earlier imbalance in terms of marquee HRD institution locations and has now spread its HRD institutions all across India. The Orissa government should do the same. In particular, for Orissa to get to the targeted 15% enrollment in higher education from its current 6.1% it must provide opportunities of higher education across Orissa. With this in mind we propose that while announcing its IIT and central university locations it must do the following:
- Not be complacent and pursue other undecided issues at MHRD (this includes pursuing one of the proposed 10 NITs, one of the four new National Institutes of Design, an NIFT, one of the 20 IIITs etc.)
- Establish new universities and institutions across Orissa to fill existing holes in Orissa higher education landscape. In particular it should:
- Establish the IIT at a location a bit far from Bhubaneswar (as far as acceptable to center, and as far as it can still maintain its proximity to Bhubaneswar to be able to be competitive in recruiting good faculty)
- Establish the second central university in KBK with branch campuses across KBK+ districts. The first choice for a HQ could be Bhawanipatna, which is well connected to other places in KBK. Alternatives are Koraput-Jeypore area or Rayagada. If the center does not allow this and requires that the central university be near a city then Rourkela (which is without a regular university) would be a good location.
- The new IIIT should be in location other than Rourkela and Bhubaneswar, and in a place where there is an STPI. Berhampur would be a first choice. Other choices could be Bhadrakh (between Kalinganagar industrial area and Balasore) and Sambalpur.
- New NIT: If it will be an upgradation, then UCE Burla is the first choice. If it will be a greenfield one then possible choices include industry hubs such as Angul, Kalinganagar, Rayagada.
- A regular university in Rourkela: Rourkela, the second largest metropolitan area of Orissa needs a regular university where students can pursue masters and Ph.Ds in science, liberal arts, etc.
- A medical college in Rourkela.
- A medical college in North Orissa: Balasore has been demanding a medical college for a long time.
- Upgrade UCE Burla to a state university and position it better to make it an IIEST similar to what West Bengal and Kerala did with respect to BESU and CUSAT respectively.
- State universities in KBK region: The government should aim for three universities for the three undivided KBK districts. If a central university is established in one of the three districts then the other two should have state universities.
- The state government should make a few more state engineering colleges in industrial and emerging areas such as Rayagada, Kalinganagar, Jharsuguda and Paradeep. Perhaps the premiere engineering schools in Berhampur and Jharsuguda can be upgraded to engineering colleges.
- A medical college, perhaps in partnership with NALCO and/or MCL and a regular university in Angul-Talcher area may also be considered.
To do the above the state might consider going the PPP route and creating a corpus of 1000-2000 crores.
12 comments April 13th, 2008