Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on the campus of the newly opened Xavier University of Bhubaneswar at Harirajpur on Monday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, July 7: The Xavier University of Bhubaneswar (XUB) came into being today, a year after the Assembly gave its nod to the proposed private varsity.

With this, Odisha had its fourth private university. The university will have initially a student intake of 520 in postgraduate and undergraduate courses. The 27-year-old Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), the premier business school in the state, is the flagship institution of XUB.

The varsity, set up in 35 acres, has admitted its first batch of students for master in business administration, master in human resources management and master in business administration-rural management. This apart, XUB has also started the School of Commerce that offers undergraduate courses such as BCom accounting, BCom finance, bachelor in management studies in HR and bachelor in management studies in marketing.

Inaugurating the university, chief minister Naveen Patnaik highlighted his government’s commitment in promoting higher education in the state. He raised the issue of improving the quality of higher education in the country and underlined the role of private universities in this regard.

“Most of the modern day managers are driven by unreasonable greed and neglect the interest of the customers. Decline in ethics in corporate organisations has resulted in financial irregularities and self-indulgence. Our universities should try to inculcate human values and ethics in the curriculum,” said Naveen.

“The world is rapidly advancing, and we need to step into the same league. I am sure that XUB would do well in ensuring the young talents from Odisha and across the country find the right education and knowledge, which would facilitate them to take leadership positions in determining the future of our great country,” he said.

Vice-chancellor Fr Paul Fernandes said the varsity had admitted 27 doctoral students and highly qualified faculty to guide the students.

He reiterated the university’s commitment to create a “good, well-ordered society” and expressed hope that the university would transform into Xavier Open University shortly. He also expressed hope that the government would continue to provide support in terms of land and infrastructural funds, so the university could expand to other parts of the region.

Apart from management education, XUB has proposed to set up other schools of higher learning in various areas such as public policy, sustainability, finance, media education and so on.