The Odisha Government has approached the Centre for funds for three major universities of the State to scale them up to a world-class level.
The Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (MoHRD) is funding several educational institutions in the country from the fund of Rashtriya Uchhatar Sikshya Abhiyan (RUSA).
Several autonomous colleges in the country are being upgraded to university with funding from RUSA, said sources in the MoHRD.
The State Government in the Department of Higher Education (DoHE) has submitted proposals to the MoHRD in this regard.
The DoHE has favoured Utkal University, Berhampur University and Ravenshaw University for this purpose and Projects for Centre of Excellence have been identified for funding from RUSA.
Recently, the State Government also approached the MoHRD to take an early decision in this regard.
Minister Higher Education Ananta Das during his visit to New Delhi had urged Union HRD Ministry saying once the funding from RUSA is approved, these varsities will scale up in a big way to be world class ones.
The Centres of Excellence would help sharing necessary facilities across the universities within the State as part of the inter university coordination, stressed by Governor and Chancellor of universities SC Jamir.
Dr Jamir has been all along stressing on inter university coordination for which several universities have started tying up with other institutions of higher learning.
While the Utkal University has tied up with the German University for academic development and research, it has also joined hands with Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS).
Tying up with the German University will be helping the Utkal University with higher learning in Anthropology. And similar tie up has been made with Unicef for Psychology, said sources.
The Utkal University has also taken support of the National Aluminium Company limited (Nalco) and Neyveli lignite Corporation limited (NlCl) for knowledge outreach.
While Nalco has sanctioned Incubation Centre, NlCl has sanctioned a
Research Chair in the Utkal University.
Sources said the MoHRD is examining a proposal under RUSA to assist Utkal University in up-gradation of their curriculum in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania in the field of Experimental Physics.
Initial round of discussion in this regard has been already done and the Utkal University is in the process of finalization of MoU collaboration with the Baylor College of Medicine, Huston, Texas, USA in the field of Bio-Technology and University of Massachusetts, in the field of Water Management, Waste Management, Robotics and Entrepreneurship.
The Rama Devi Women’s University is imparting skill training to the students in collaboration with the Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM).
The Rama Devi Women’s University (RDWU) is also moving ahead with SNDT University of Maharashtra under “Ek Bharat Sresth Bharat” Programme for academic development.
The MoHRD is extending all-out support and Higher Education Secretary GVV Sarma is in touch with the Principal Secretary Higher Education in this regard, said sources.
The RDWU is also in the process of finalizing MoU with Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA) and Institute of life Sciences (IlS) for Knowledge Outreach, said sources.