Three Odisha varsities to be Centres of Excellence

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Oct 31:

A blueprint to convert 30 colleges and three universities into Centres of Excellency within 2 years has been mooted by department of higher education, Odisha.

Smart class rooms, Wi-Fi campuses, library and laboratories will be digitalized. The classes will no longer be chalk and blackboard based.

Work has already been started in changing Utkal, Sambalpur and Berhampur universities into Centres of Excellence. First on the list is Utkal University, which has already received a grant of Rs 100 crore. A human resource development centre, central instrumentation centre, Wi-Fi campus is all coming up. The human resource centre building is under construction and will be ready in the next 10 months; this centre will impart training and education to the teachers here, according to reports.

The Parija library in Utkal University will also be upgraded with new books. Funds have been disbursed for the hostels’ repair and for this purpose the administrative setup is being put into place.

Similarly, in Berhampur and Sambalpur Universities, the government will be giving a grant of Rs 70 lakh each to turn them into Centres of Excellence. Some of the funds have been disbursed to these universities.

“In next two years these universities will change for better; importance will be given towards research by both teaching faculty as well as students. Later, all the Odisha universities will be developed as Centres of Excellence,” said Higher Education Minister Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi.

Not only universities, 30 colleges will also be converted into Centres of Excellence in the first phase. BJB Autonomous College and other prominent colleges will be included in the evolution in a bid to provide quality education, research facilities and security for its students, the minister added.