Odisha’s Utkal University to tie up with five national institutes

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to improve the academic environment of the university, Odisha’s Utkal University will collaborate with five institutes of national repute. The students hailed the move.

The oldest varsity of the State will join hands with Regional Medical Research Centre, Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Institute of Physics, Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT) and National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) to focus on teaching, research, field work and sharing of ideas.

Confirming the news, Utkal University Vice Chancellor Soumendra Mohan Patnaik said a committee has been formed to start the programme.

“The move came after the principal scientific adviser to the Centre had suggested the Union government to ensure academic collaboration between universities and institutions of national repute for mutual benefit and academic growth,” Patnaik added.

Worth mentioning, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development had selected 10 universities of the country to start the collaborations including Utkal University.

The programme will help students of Utkal to visit campuses and can access laboratories and other resources of the national institutions.

“Under this programme, we can call their faculty members to guide our students and deliver lectures on a particular subject,” said Patnaik, who is the Chairman of the committee.

ILS Director, Ajay Parida, is the co-chair of the committee while directors and professors of the national institutions are members of the committee.

Expressing happiness, students of the Utkal varsity hoped to get an exposure and an experience of lifetime.

“The collaboration programme will help us meeting and getting guidance by the renowned teachers from the national institutes apart from using their infrastructure,” said Rashmi Rekha Das, a Ph D scholar of the varsity’s Public Administration Department.