Ranchi, April 16: The state government hopes to infuse professionalism in the way technical education is being imparted in its institutes and, as a first step, initiated moves to set up a board of governors for BIT, Sindri, and push for corporates to adopt several existing and upcoming institutes offering diplomas and degrees in professional courses.

It has invited academics, industrialists and professionals to be part of the board that will eventually run the Sindri institute in a far more professional way, now that it has been granted autonomy by the state Cabinet.

Efforts are also being made to involve private players, including corporate houses and educational groups, in running government technical institutes — existing and upcoming — offering diploma, degree and postgraduate courses.

The idea is to improve the functioning of existing institutes including BIT, Sindri and 13 government polytechnics, and start off two upcoming government engineering colleges at Ramgarh and Chaibasa and 21 new polytechnics in various locations.

Director (technical education) Arun Kumar said the board of governors for BIT, Sindri, will have 10 members and it will oversee the functioning of the institute. Three of the 10 positions will be advertised and will have to be filled after receiving applications. The science and technology department has already sought brief resumes from retired educationists of premier institutions, industrialists and professionals. April 30 is the last date for those interested to respond.

Besides the three, two of the board members would be from the college faculty, one educationist/industrialist nominated by the institute’s principal/director, one nominated by the UGC, one from the state government and one nominated by a university (in this case Vinoba Bhave University). The institute’s principal/director will also be a member of the board.

BIT, Sindri, was established in 1949 as a premier technical institute offering 10 under graduate and 11 post graduate programmes. The institute is spread over a 450-acre plot, 20km from Dhanbad.

The department of science and technology has also invited expressions of interest from leading corporate houses (with net worth of Rs 250 crore or more) and educational groups (operating at least five technical institutes of repute) to run the new engineering colleges at Ramgarh and Chaibasa and a polytechnic at Silli, the home turf of deputy chief minister Sudesh Kumar Mahto.

An advertisement brought out by the department suggests corporate houses which have an establishment in Jharkhand would be given preference.

The government is also interested in introducing a public private partnership (PPP) model in phases for BIT, Sindri, and polytechnics at Dumka, Dhanbad, Bhaga, Koderma, Khunti, Ranchi, Latehar, Adityapur, Kharsawan and women’s polytechnics at Bokaro, Ranchi and Jamshedpur.

“We want to overhaul the existing technical education scenario in the state through the PPP model. Many new industries are on the verge of starting operations here or have lined up projects. We want to be ready to reap the benefits,” said Kumar.

A pre-expression of interest conference has been set for April 26 for the interested corporates who then need to provide other details by May 15.