Odisha's Utkal University filed 1 patent in 5 years, says Comptroller and Auditor General of India

Of 49 research projects taken up with government grants of Rs 3 crore, only 8 were completed till Jan 2020.
Utkal University in Bhubaneswar (File photo| EPS)
Utkal University in Bhubaneswar (File photo| EPS)

BHUBANESWAR:  Although counted among the State’s top higher education institutions, Utkal University has been found floundering in facilitating academic research, both in terms of quantity and quality. The report on Outcomes of Higher Education by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) tabled in the Assembly on Thursday has pointed out that from 2014-15 to 2018-19, although funds were allocated to the university to carry out research projects, it failed in doing so.

In these five years, 49 research projects were taken up in Utkal with government grants of Rs 3.09 cr but only eight could be completed till January 2020. Stating that the percentage of research works of Utkal remained at only 16 pc, the report said that the research and development cells of the university also did not monitor utilisation of funds allocated for the purpose as a result of which, the reason behind delay could not be ascertained in the audit. Worse, only one patent was published in 2017-18 during the five years period but has not been granted yet.

The university today enjoys an A+ grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). However, although NAAC gives the maximum points to any university which has at least 20 patents or more for accreditation, Utkal University failed to score any grade point based on this criterion. The report stated that adequate opportunities were also not provided to faculty members to attend professional development training programs and only five of the 138 faculty members in the period got international fellowships for advanced study.

As far as collaborating with other universities and industries for research and learning is concerned, Utkal signed only eight national and one international MoUs in five years, which is way less than the NAAC benchmark of at least 30 MoUs in the same period. The only silver lining was that the 138 faculty members published 1,984 papers in UGC notified journals - an average of 14 papers per teacher - which helped the university score maximum grade points for NAAC accreditation.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Education introduced a new parameter ‘research’ in the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) this year. Although Utkal university was the only State-run varsity to find a spot in the top-100 ranking, it could not score a rank under the research parameter. 

LOOPHOLES

Opportunities were not provided to faculty members to attend professional development training programs

Only 5 of 138 faculty members got international fellowships for advanced study

Utkal signed only 8 national and 1 international MoUs in five years

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