Non-resident Odia (NRO) Professor Digambara Patra of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, who is a native of Kalahandi district, has suggested to merge the existing and the newly-established institutions in Bhawanipatna (within a 5-km radius) to make a multi-campus Kalahandi University (KU) in the line of many universities in the European and Chinese towns and cities.
In a letter to CM Naveen Patnaik, Prof Patra said the existing campus of Government Autonomous College Bhawanipatna will serve for the time being as the main campus of KU. Academics of KU should be grouped into 6 major faculties/colleges, such as Faculty/College of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty/College of Natural Sciences, Faculty/College of Engineering and Architecture, Faculty/College of Medicine, Faculty/College of Business, and Faculty/College of Health Sciences and Nursing.
The College of Teacher Education, Bhawanipatna which may shut down should be brought under the Department of Education (Faculty/College of Arts and Social Sciences) in the main campus of KU. Accordingly, all the infrastructure should be shifted to KU from College of Teacher Education, Bhawanipatna.
The Government College of Engineering Bhawanipatna should be renamed as Faculty/College of Engineering and Architecture of KU. Dean/Principal of Government Engineering College Bhawanipatna will head the campus and this campus will be known as Engineering and Architecture campus of KU, thus, it will run under the umbrella of KU and be separated from BPUT, which will give it more autonomy, Prof Patra suggested.
He also said the newly constructed Kalahandi Medical College should be named as Faculty/College of Medicine, KU. The Dean/Principal of Kalahandi Medical College will head this campus and this campus will be known as the Medical campus of KU. Under KU, Kalahandi Medical College will be more autonomous.The Nursing College in Kalahandi should be brought under the Faculty/College of Health Sciences and Nursing of KU, it may be good to shift it to the medical campus of KU as or remain as a separate campus, Prof Patra told.
Under Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, a new Department/School should be created for Fine Arts and Art History that will include music, theater, art galleries, painting and other performing arts giving special consideration to local, tribal/folk and Odisha arts/music.
In the next three years, postgraduate and PhD programmes should be established in Chemistry, Biology (Botany/Zoology), Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Geology, Law, Management (MBA), and other fields. Immediate importance should be given to natural science departments as they boost research, obtain national/international research grants and university ranking in the long run, he said.
In next five years, 300 acres of land adjacent to either present Government College of Engineering Bhawanipatna or newly constructed Kalahandi Medical College should be acquired/purchased to shift the main campus. Private and Government land between the Government Engineering College Bhawanipatna and newly constructed Kalahandi Medical College will be ideal.
Doing so, natural science departments like Chemistry, Physics and Biology will serve the need of engineering and medical education and no separate basic/natural science departments will be needed for these technical/medical colleges. An internal short-cut road link is possible between the engineering campus and medical campus.
The existing land of Government college (autonomous) Bhawanipatna is about 40 acres, which is not enough for a model university. Many of the existing buildings there are old which do not fit the need of a separate department for teaching and research lab and do not have safety protocols.
Some of the college land is also illegally occupied by private parties. Investing huge amounts of money to build new buildings and physical infrastructure in the present location is a wastage of money for the long run. Therefore, 100 crores be initially allocated for land acquisition, preferably around Government College of Engineering and Kalahandi Medical College and to build physical infrastructure in new location, he suggested. In the new 300 acres of land (including engineering and medical campus), an administrative block for Vice-Chancellor and administrative work, central library with common reading rooms, computer room with online facilities, service room, canteen, science block including buildings for different departments providing lab facilities and research lab for each faculty, humanity, language and social science block, theater, separate hostels for men and women, faculty housing, service building etc. should be created with an initial budget of `100 crore, which should be increased to `500 crore in the next 5 years. For temporary running the university till new physical infrastructure is made, available infrastructure in Government college (autonomous) Bhawanipatna, Government Engineering College Bhawanipatna and Sardar Raja Medical College can be used for administrative purposes. For example, natural science departments can be temporarily accommodated in Government Engineering College Bhawanipatna (Engineering and Architecture campus of KU).
New buildings can be constructed in campus keeping KU’s long term vision that can be temporarily used by KU administration. When Kalahandi Medical College will be ready in a year or so, the KU administration can use that infrastructure for common purpose too, Prof Patra maintained.