Odisha HRD

Status of various newly started central universities

Following is extracted from Swaha Sahoo’s report at  http://in.news.yahoo.com/32/20091203/1053/tnl-makeshift-universities.html. It originally appeared in Hindustan Times. (The article has the first name of the CUO VC wrong. Her name is Surabhi Banerjee and not Saswati Banerjee.)

• Central University of Orissa, Koraput: Started with four teachers taking post-graduate courses in English, Oriya, sociology, anthropology and tribal studies, and journalism and mass communication. One lecturer left soon after joining."We are not short of faculty and have visiting teachers. The procedure to appoint regular faculty takes time," said vice-chancellor …. The university has plans to appoint 15 faculty members initially. With 150 post-graduate students … Guest lecturers are not too keen on visiting the Central University of Orissa because reaching Koraput, 450 km southwest of state capital Bhubaneswar, is difficult. A single passenger train a day runs from the state capital Bhubaneswar and takes 18 hours to reach Naxal-affected Koraput. The closest airport is in Vizag in Andhra Pradesh, a five-hour drive. "Unless some sort of infrastructure development happens in and around the central universities, attracting faculty and providing quality education will be difficult,” said … Banerjee.
• Central University of Haryana, Mahendragarh: Lord Krishna Central University of Haryana has been functioning temporarily from the Government Education College at Narnaul, the headquarters of Mahendergarh district, about 130 km west of Delhi. There is no place for teachers and students to stay at the college campus. There is a community health centre (CHC), only one cinema hall, a government school, and a few private schools in Mahendergarh. About 40 km from this place, about 500 acres of panchayat land for the university is under transfer. The process of admission for the M Phil and Ph D courses in English, Economics and Political Science is on. The temporary administrative office of the university is in Gurgaon, adjacent Delhi.
• Central University of Bihar: The state government wants to set up the central university in Motihari, 135 km north of Patna. Vice-Chancellor Janak Pandey has proposed for setting up a multi-centre campus, with Motihari as the main venue. Motihari does not have air connectivity. The university is functioning at a makeshift campus in Patna, mostly with teachers on contract from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur. … In Bihar, the HRD ministry has attached conditions to the state government’s proposal for a central university at Motihari, 135 km north of Patna. Sibal wrote to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in October that the state government should develop infrastructure such as roads and air connectivity as soon as possible.
• Central University of Kerala: .. began two interdisciplinary courses – MA in Comparative Literature and Economic Theory and Global Governance – while only five of the 25 seats in Economics and 15 of the 25 seats in English filled. Teacher shortage …
• Central University of Gujarat: … 25 posts have been sanctioned, but since recruitment is yet to take place, the university has begun functioning with three teachers on contract, temporarily in Gandhinagar. Land is yet to be allotted.
• Central university of Karnataka: “We have constructed just a boundary wall on the 621 acres of land handed over to us and will soon begin construction,” said A.M. Pathan, vice-chancellor of the Central University of Karnataka.
• Most of the universities have come or are slated to do so in educationally backward areas such as Koraput (Orissa), Thiruvarur (332 km south of Chennai), Gulbarga (663 km north of Bangalore), Mahendragarh (in Haryana; 130 km from Delhi), Kasargod (650 km north of Thiruvananthapuram) and Bathinda (Punjab; 146 km west of Chandigarh). The following have temporary locations: Patna, Brambey (20 km west of Ranchi in Jharkhand), Jaipur, Gandhinagar and Kasrgod. The ones in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir have not started functioning.
• … only five central universities (Haryana, Karnataka, Orissa, Punjab and Tamil Nadu) have managed to find land for setting up permanent infrastructure.
• In Himachal Pradesh, for instance, the dispute between the state and Central governments has come in the way of setting up the campus. 

The following table  from http://www.orissa2020.org/appendix/location-of-new-central-universities gives a bit more information on the locations.
 

These are all teething problems and as the campuses get built things will change for the better. Despite these problems, it is wise that many of the states picked the backward areas for these universities.

Some of the things the Orissa government needs to do is:

• Start a daytime train between Bhubaneswar and Koraput. The distance between them is 679 kms. (Note that Koraput has a daily train to Howrah and a new daily train to Rourkela has been announced in this year’s budget.)
• Start an intercity between Visakhapatnam and Koraput. (Distance is 216 kms.)
• Open a knowledge park of 200 acres near the central university. This knowledge park should contain an STP, and other amenities. the state should invite trustees of some of the top private engineering colleges to establish educational institutions such as engineering colleges in this knowledge park.

Another point to note is that Central University of Bihar VC is planning a multi-center campus.  CU Orissa should do the same and have multiple centers in the KBK region.

December 5th, 2009