Hot seat - Prasant Kumar Sahoo,
vice-chancellor,
Utkal University

You have decided to start an engineering college on the Utkal University campus from the coming academic session. Will it be able to compete with the established engineering institutes, especially the private ones?

A day after I made an announcement about the engineering college, governor M.C. Bhandare, who is the chancellor of our university, asked me how exactly we were planning to go about it.

I assured him that our product – University College of Engineering and Technology – would sell like hot cakes.

Students will get quality education by paying lesser money. We are planning to start with three courses, each batch having 30 students. Our college will be on a par with the IITs and NITs.

For that, the university has to provide state-of-the-art facilities. But even for your regular postgraduate departments, you lack adequate infrastructure and teachers.

We will initially hold classes at the old building of the MCA department.

We will request the government to provide Rs 20 crore to build a separate building for the engineering college.

The teacher vacancies issue is under active consideration of the government and hopefully, things will be sorted out before the next session begins.

Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Odisha Congress affairs in-charge Jagdish Tytler were invited as guests to the annual function of the university students’ union earlier this month. Do you agree that it was more like a Congress party event than a university function?

The university president in consultation with the students’ union advisor decides the list of invitees for their functions.

Even I was an invited guest on the occasion. I did not play any role in deciding the guest list. (It was) solely at the discretion of the students.

You had requested Azad to help set up a medical college on the campus. What is its status now?

I put forth the proposal since he was visiting our campus. He has invited me to Delhi to meet him.

But right now, there are too many things on my plate and I want to achieve my targets step by step.

There is a perception that you have a soft corner for the Congress for which the ruling Biju Janata Dal has neglected the university, which is allegedly a stronghold of the Congress party.

Why are you dragging me into controversial matters? Please don’t ask me such questions.

The 12th Finance Commission approved the budget for continuance of service of the women studies faculty members but the university has slept on the matter and students are suffering. The centre of excellence seems to have lost its significance.

We will go about things only after getting the government’s approval. We are hopeful that matters will be sorted out by July.

The number of students from Odisha, particularly from Utkal University, qualifying for the civil services exams has come down drastically over the years. Does this not bother you? What steps are you taking in this regard?

Times are changing. Earlier, there was a craze for civil services because there was not enough scope for professional or technical education. Today, the brighter kids are opting more for professional courses like engineering, medicine and MBA, and earning six-digit salaries.

Do you feel that the standard of teaching at Utkal has deteriorated?

I don’t think so. Once the vacancies in teaching posts are filled up, you will see a huge academic reform.

Isn’t the university going through a fund crisis? Many of your plans, including making the campus WiFi enabled, repairing buildings and modernising the library, have not materialised due to paucity of funds.

Fund shortage has been a major constraint for developmental and repair work.

The government provides funds for payment of salaries, pensions and monthly bills, not for expansion or modernisation. We have to generate funds internally, either through the alumni or other means.

An audit report of the accountant general of Odisha recently exposed financial irregularities in the university to the tune of Rs 1.8 crore. It stated that developed funds collected from students of self-financing courses were paid to a company for launching an e-governance project at Utkal in 2004. Are the varsity accounts being regularly audited by local fund audit?

No, it is being done every year. Whoever is responsible for the earlier irregularities will be punished appropriately.

Any special plans for strengthening the campus recruitment process?

It has been going well over the last few years. Our placement officer is in touch with various local and national organisations. We are putting in our best efforts to ensure that our students, both from regular and self-financing courses, find placements.

Do you think you have been able to do justice to the position you are occupying at present?

I am gradually proceeding towards fulfilling my targets. My first priority was to ensure discipline on campus and I feel proud to say that I have been successful in this regard. As a V-C, my responsibility is to protect the interests of the university.

Management guru

A frontline academic Prasant Kumar Sahoo is the vice-chancellor of Utkal University, the state's premier educational institute. He has over 35 years of experience in the academic field.

Hailing from a prosperous business family in Nayagarh district, Sahoo, a brilliant student, completed his education in commerce from Utkal and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. After a brief stint as a lecturer in Dhenkanal College, he joined the university as a faculty member of the commerce department in 1976.

From 1987 to 1997, he shuttled between Utkal and Berhampur University as management professor, dean of management studies and head of business administration department.

The former programme director of executive MBA is a core member of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) expert committee, All India Accounting Association, state and national level Commerce Associations and heads the directorate of distance and continuing education at Utkal.

Sahoo was the managing director of Sankalpa, a journal for management development and application from 1995-97.

Quite a few of his research papers have been published in management journals.

Under his guidance, 27 scholars have earned their Ph.D degrees three have obtained D.Litt.

What would you have been had you not been an academic?

I have not given much thought to it. Maybe, I would have been a chartered accountant. I come from a business background — a very rich and highly educated family. I completed my I.Sc with first division marks and thought of studying engineering. However, at that time, there was not a bright scope for engineers and so, I switched over to the commerce stream. After my studies, I joined Dhenkanal College as a lecturer and after eight months, came to Utkal University. From lecturer to reader to professor and now vice-chancellor, I feel privileged to be part of this famed institution.