BHUBANESWAR: In its bid to enhance access to higher education and reduce dropout rate, particularly in rural areas, the state government on Friday opened 14 new degree colleges in educationally-uncovered and backward blocks of eight districts on Friday. The colleges were virtually inaugurated by Higher Education minister Suryabanshi Suraj.
The colleges are located at Tiring (Mayurbhanj), Thuamul Rampur (Kalahandi), Gurundia and Kuanrmunda (Sundargarh), Bandhugaon and Narayanapatna (Koraput); Tentulikhunti, Kosagumuda, Jharigaon and Raighar (Nabarangpur); Kasipur and Ramanaguda (Rayagada), Dharakote (Ganjam) and Khajuripada (Kandhamal). The blocks did not have any government or private college.
The new institutions will offer degree courses in five disciplines - political science, education, history, English and Odia - under Arts stream. The students’ strength is 32 in all the disciplines except English and Odia which are compulsory subjects.
Suraj said in the absence of colleges, a significant number of students from these areas used to drop out. “The new colleges will help address the dropout issue and encourage students to pursue higher education,” he said.
The department has engaged four guest faculty per college which will be operating from school buildings until the required infrastructure is constructed. The department has directed the district collectors to provide 10 acres of land within a 5 km radius of the block headquarters for the purpose. Faculty members of different degree colleges have been made in-charge principals of these colleges.
Sources said while the University Grants Commission (UGC) mandates three faculty members per subject in a degree college, the new colleges have a grace period of five years to meet the norm.
The new colleges are part of the 18 colleges announced during the last government. The remaining four at Gumma (Gajapati), Chitrakonda (Malkangiri), Chandrapur (Rayagada) and Nuagaon (Sundargarh) will be made operational once infrastructure and faculty plans are worked out, officials said.