Ravenshaw University web page
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.
7 comments April 27th, 2007
OUAT accomplishments
Today’s Samaja has an editorial page article on OUAT accomplishments.
April 26th, 2007
IIIT Bhubaneswar to start classes in September this year
Dharitri (in Oriya) and Pragativadi (in English) report that IIIT Bhubaneswar will start classes with 60 students from September this year.
April 26th, 2007
Higher Education dept. of Orissa formally proposes an education city in Naraj
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.
1 comment April 26th, 2007
Initiatives and projects (many higher education related) during the 1961-1967 tenure of Biju Patnaik
Yesterday’s Dahritri has a column by senior columnist Barendra Kumar Dhal [1,2,3,4,5,6] where he lists the various initiatives and projects taken up during Biju Patnaik’s government of 1961-67. I am amazed by the list which includes many HRD institutions. Here are some of the highlights.
- Paradeep Port
- Daitari-Paradeep highway
- Mig factory in Sunabeda
- Rourkela Steel Plant
- Regional Research Laboratory
- Regional College of Education (Now called Regional Institute of Education)
- Berhampur University
- Sambalpur University
- Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology
- Sainik School
- Baragarh Cement factory
- Various factories of IDC
- Orissa textile mills (OTM)
- Kalinga Tubes
- Kalinga Iron works
Other References: Ganjam District site,wikipedia,Orissa govt. e-magazine, another.
3 comments April 24th, 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
Reorganization and new programs at Ravenshaw
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 will start five year integrated M.Sc program from July 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.
13 comments April 19th, 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
Ban on hiring regular faculty in Orissa Universities is lifted
After a long time and with the Orissa financial situation improving the government of Orissa has lifted the ban on hiring regular faculty in Orissa Universities. For a long time, universities could not hire regular faculty and were hiring faculty on short-term contracts. This had resulted in the lack of quality faculty in the universities and as a result the Orissa universities suffered a lot. The lifting of this ban is an welcome step.
This news is reported in various newspapers. (Sambada, New indian Express)
In the first phase the Orissa government has sanctioned hiring of 70 regular faculty at the four universities of Sambalpur University (47 positions), Sri Jagannath Sanskrit University (4 positions), North Orissa University (Baripada-13 positions) and Fakirmohan University (6 positions). The 6 positions in Fakirmohan University is to start a new program in Applied Physics and Ballistics in collaboration with DRDO. 12 of the positions in the North Orissa University are for 3 newly introduced self-financing courses in biotechnology, business administration and computer science. 1 position in the North Orissa University is for a new department in tribal studies.
April 8th, 2007
Letter to the CM: expediting establishment of National Law University in Orissa
Update: Tathya.in on 5th April 2007 has a detailed article on this issue.
(Note: Please send a similar letter to the CM at cmo@ori.nic.in)
Dear Hon’ble Chief minister:
For a couple of years we have been hearing about the establishment of a National Law University in Orissa.
Our state has been moving much slower than the other states with respect to this, as already 6 such institutes are there in other states and according to http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1056807
the HRD ministry in Delhi called the directors of the existing National Law Institutes for discussing a common entrance exam.
I think soon the HRD ministry may consider partially funding these existing law institutes and since the one in Orissa is not yet established, we may lose out. Once such a chance is missed it would be very difficult to make the Law institute in Orissa to be funded by UGC or MHRD.
We request that you take immediate steps towards the establishment of this planned law university in Orissa at the earliest.
If there is a delay at the Higher Education and/or Law department office, please push them to expedite on this matter. If the delay is in your office, please consider this at the earliest.
sincerely,
Chitta Baral
April 5th, 2007
ICFAI University, Bhubaneswar
Update: The MOU has been signed. [Kalinga Times]
Pragativadi reports that ICFAI plans to sign an MOU with Orissa government to establish an ICFAI university in Bhubaneswar. At present they have universities in Uttaranchal, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Jharkhand. For example, ICFAI University in Dehradun has a business school, a science and technology school, a law school, a college of education, etc.
They plan to buy 150 acres of land from private parties near Jatni – the area near the Khurda Road station. The report also says that Orissa government is in the process of making legislation that will allow such private universities like ICFAI university, Vedanta University and Ravishankar University.
5 comments March 19th, 2007
IIIT Update: Classes may start in a building in Infocity
There is some possibility that IIIT Bhubaneswar classes may start in a building in the Infocity campus. That location has many advantages over the CITE location in Rasulgarh. Effort is on to obtain some chair professorship funded by various companies that have operations in Bhubaneswar and Orissa. The search for a director continues. The plan to start classes in the coming academic year is still on.
1 comment March 19th, 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
Sri Sri Ravishankar’s University
It seems progress is being made in this regard. A prominent leader in one of the top IT company of India is in charge of identifying a Dean for the IT/Computer Science program. I am told that T. N. Sheshan again visited Orissa last week regarding starting the university in August 2007. They are planning to have programs in medicine, sciences, and IT/Computer science, among other topics. The grapevine strongly suggests that the land overlooking Kathjodi near the origin of Kathajodi will be given to this university rather than NISER and NISER is being shown alternative land between Khurda and Jatni.
1 comment March 13th, 2007
IIIT director search and estimated expenses
Today’s New Indian Express reports that director serach for IIIT Bhubaneswar is going on in full swing. The search committee consists of Dr. Sadagopan from IIIT Bangalore, Mr. Subroto Bagchi of Mindtree, Dr. Ramani from HP labs and Mr. Vishal Dev, Director OCAC. The report also says that the project cost will be Rs 45 crores out of which state government has budgeted 10 crores and the remaining is to be raised from private companies.
March 1st, 2007