Even as it will hold 6th annual day on Aug 29
The Central University of Odisha, Koraput will be celebrating its 6th foundation day on August 29, but in terms of proper infrastructure, faculty and governance, the varsity has miles to go.
It was established by the Centre under an Act of the Parliament. It is the one of 15 new Central varsities set up across the country. As per the policy of the Government, its aim is to boost access to quality education in the less educationally developed districts which have a graduate enrollment ratio of less than the national average of 11 per cent.
Koraput district was chosen as the venue because of its backwardness and predominant tribal population which is untouched by the modern education. A majority of the people of the district belong to SC and ST category.
The site of Central University is at Chikapur village coming under Sunabeda NAC area. It is six km from the Sunabeda junction and is spread over 450 acres of land.
It is disheartening to note that though the institution has crossed five years it has not been able to grow on the expected line. The university has not a permanent Vice Chancellor (VC) as yet. Vice Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia University Prof Mohammad Miyan is in charge of the Koraput Central University. Even the institution has no permanent Registrar, Assistant Registrar and Finance Officer for proper governance though a total of 1,022 students are reading in nine departments such as Odia, English, Sociology, Anthropology, J&MC, Biodiversity, Mathematics, Economics and Education. The faculty strength is 30 of which permanent ones are 18 and adhoc ones are 12 in number. There is no special accommodation for the faculty members, while many inexperienced and under qualified ones are teaching in various departments.
Faculty members hold key to the reputation of a university but here the authorities seem not to be laying much stress on it. Being a Central University, students are coming from different parts of the country like from J&K, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal etc but as yet the university has failed to provide them hostel facility. Both the girls and boys are staying in a hostel run by a private engineering college at Semiliguda which is 25 km from the university and that too, without proper road communication. The students are deprived of basic amenities there.
The university is till date running from a temporary building of the Central Silk Board at landiguda where there are not adequate and well-furnished class rooms. From this academic session, a few classes have been shifted to its new campus at Sunabeda but till date the new campus is short of minimum amenities. Internet is still a day dream there. There is a continuous demand from the students, locals and local representatives for developing the university soon.