The proposed Xavier University aims at providing a core campus comprising academic and nonacademic infrastructures to cater to the need of over 5,000 students with over 400 teaching faculty members and 500 non-teaching staff to be recruited in a phased manner.
The university will be established near Pipili in Puri district, for which 35 acres of land has already been acquired. This is the first Xavier University in India. This is a futuristic and visionary initiative to establish a world-class research-driven university.
The university will offer programmes like Engineering & Technology, Banking & Financial Services, Humanities, Public Policy, Social Science, Medical Science, Management & law, Natural Science, Vocational Education & Training and Tribal & Development Studies.
The much-awaited Xavier University, Odisha Bill-2013 was passed by the State Assembly on Friday after a marathon debate. The new private university is the fifth of its kind in the State, though the proposed Vedanta University is yet to receive the Governor’s approval.
Earlier, the Assembly had given its nod to the Sri Sri Ravi Shankar University, Vedanta University, ICFAI University and Centurion University of Technology & Management.
And for the first time in the State, the Xavier University will provide reservation of 50 per cent of the seats for students of the State subject to satisfying the minimum qualifying standards for admission tests and interviews.
The merit for admission in the university shall be determined on the basis of marks or grades obtained in the qualifying examination and achievements in co-curricular and extracurricular activities as well as on the basis of marks or grade obtained in the entrance test conducted. Special weightage shall be given to ST, SC and girl students.
The university shall implement a scheme to provide concession in fees for the students of SC), ST, Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) and Economically Weaker (EW) sections from Odisha. An Endowment Fund of Rs 10 crore will be created by the sponsoring body while there will be a General Fund and Development Fund for development of the university. While the Governor of Odisha will be the Visitor of the university, there will be a Chairman who will have an overall authority on the university and will appoint or remove the Vice-Chancellor.
There will be four Secretaries of the State Government as members of the Board of Governors (BoG). They are the Secretaries of the Departments of Industries, Higher Education, Finance and Employment, Technical Education and Training. Two MlAs will be nominated as BoG Members.
Besides, two academicians, four industry experts and three representatives of the Xavier Institute Management Society will be in the BOG, in which the Registrar of the university will be the Member-Secretary.