Utkal Varsity to set up Engineering College

BHUBANESWAR: Utkal University is planning to set up an engineering college on its premises.The decision comes in the wake of the State Government and the UGC directing the University to generate its own funds for functioning.While the engineering courses will be run on self-financing mode, the University also has plans to open another course - Faculty of Agriculture and Food Technology - on PPP mode.In the wake of a large number of seats in private engineering colleges in the State remaining vacant, university Vice-Chancellor (VC) PK Sahoo said steps would be taken not to compromise on the teaching standard in the proposed engineering college.“We will provide IIT standard of teaching in the college,” he added.Sahoo was speaking on the sidelines of the 69th foundation day celebration of the University on Sunday.This apart, the VC said a lot of innovation courses are in the pipeline that would help in improving the employbility of students.He expressed concern at the quality of student intake in the varsity, in particular the social science departments.“The mad rush for engineering and other professional courses has led to shrinking of the generalist pool.The standard of the varsity’s graduate programmes needs to be improved which will lead to improvement in the student intake,” he said.Sahoo added that filling up of vacant teacher posts in the University has become a challenge with non-availability and retention of NET-qualified teachers.Chancellor of the University and Governor M C Bhandare said the varsity teachers should lay stress on building strong character and self-discipline among students.On the occasion, SC Judge Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik said Utkal University should launch more number of professional courses so that students from poorer background can access quality higher education at affordable costs.He added that courses which are immediately relevant to the Indian rural scenario should be identified and offered with a nominal fee so that youths from economically poorer background can afford them.Forty-two cash awards, including five gold medals, were given away to students who showed exceptional performance or had won in various competitions conducted in and outside the university.