Bhubaneswar, June 25: The Central University of Odisha today announced that it would start functioning from its new campus at Sunabeda from this academic session, which starts in July. It has also decided to introduce two new courses —BEd (teachers education) and MEd (educational technology) — from this year. The courses will have 100 and 30 seats, respectively.

“The idea is to create trained teachers for the many institutes mushrooming across the country. The teachers will be exclusively trained to use information and communication technology tools to meet the challenges of present times. This will enable them to connect with remote areas of the country and make education accessible to the deprived,” said vice-chancellor of the varsity Surabhi Banerjee.

While two faculties had already been recruited for the courses, an advanced video-conferencing facility had been installed for the purpose, she said.

The varsity is also planning to launch programmes on healthcare technology and need-based courses in law from the next academic session.

“The programmes will teach the students about their immediate environment such as tribal laws and the laws pertaining to land acquisition. The health care technology courses are meant to train people on technologies being used in every day health care. The varsity will also start a programme on nutrition in association with the public health foundation of India,” she told mediapersons.

Talking about infrastructure development, Banerjee said that four blocks, including the guesthouse, hostels, academic block, library and conference halls, had been completed along with a boundary wall of 10km. In the next phase of construction, the teachers’ quarters and health care units will be constructed.

The new campus at Sunabeda is spread over 430 acres at Chikapar village.

The varsity is set to organise its third convocation on July 1, in which more than 200 students will be awarded their degrees.

Minister for human resources development M.M. Pallam Raju will deliver the convocation address.

Honoris causa will be conferred on eminent social activist Tulasi Munda, well-known environment scientist Madhav Gadgil and legal luminary Gopal Subramanian.

Established in 2009, the varsity at present runs masters programme in eight subjects and has more than 500 students enrolled.