Xavier University Inaugurated
BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday inaugurated the new Xavier University, Bhubaneswar (XUB) at Nijigarh in Kurki under Pipili tehsil.
Addressing the future managers and guests, Naveen spoke about the State Government’s focus of making Odisha an educational hub and said establishment of XUB was a giant step towards realising that goal. Declining that corporate ethics was one of the main reasons behind financial irregularities, he said this problem can be tackled by a good university that inculcates human values in its students.
Vice-Chancellor of the university Fr Paul Fernandes said, “We have created the first digital university of India with the help of digital technology provided by different Information Technology (IT) giants of the country.” The features of the digital university include Data Centre, Xavier One Portal, Xavier University Cloud, Video Book, EduERP/AIS, Data Analytics and Big Data Lab, Social Media and Cloud Computing Lab.
XUB was conceptualised by the officials of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), which has its campus near Fortune Towers.
Other than the MBA programmes, the university will offer specialised programmes like Bachelor in Commerce (Accounting), Bachelor in Commerce (Finance), Bachelor of Management Studies (Marketing) and Bachelor of Management Studies (Human Resource).
The university has to reserve 50 per cent of seats for Odisha students. This year, XUB has admitted 27 doctoral scholars but is expected to increase the number to 100.
Fernandes said the university will also focus on educating adult learners of the community and play the role of an open university in future. In addition to that, he sought additional assistance from the State Government to expand XUB’s presence in West, North and Southern Odisha as well.
Minister of State (Ind) for Higher Education Pradeep Panigrahi, Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy and XUB Board of Governors Chairman Rajive Kaul were also present.
The proposal for the new university was passed officially by the State Government with the approval of the Xavier University Bill-2013 in April, last year.