Students pose with Odia film star Archita Sahoo after being felicitated at Kingston Education Awards. Telegraph picture

The literary society of IIT-Bhubaneswar, “Panacea”, is full of enthusiasts who are always eager to do something more. Apart from providing students with an opportunity to voice their opinions and nurture their creative skills, it has been instrumental in establishing a reading club-cum-library that houses academic and non-academic books and journals for students. The society also runs a blog called “The Living Room” along with newsletter “Wistaz” where students and faculty members express their opinions on various issues and latest happenings at the college. The club members organise the event “Litspree” at the socio-cultural fest of the institute called Alma Fiesta. Panacea also conducts frequent debating sessions to improve public speaking and oratory skills of students. Every night, a particular word is posted along with its meaning, under a “Word of the Night” column on their Facebook page. The club that claims to be the most active one among others in the coveted institute is gradually becoming a hot favourite of the faculty members.

Hostel woes

Students, especially girls, applying for admissions to the Ravenshaw Junior College are worried about lack of hostel facilities. Soon after the Ravenshaw College was declared a University in 2006, most of the land under the junior college came under the control of the varsity. Repeated pleas from the college administration and students for a plot of land for building a hostel fell on deaf ears. The junior college, which has around 1,200 students, hardly has adequate hostel facilities for students coming from outside the city. Of the 12 hostels of the university in which the junior college had a decent share in the past, now only eighty seats are reserved for boys, while there is hardly any seat for girls. An official of the varsity said: 'As there are no fixed criteria for hostel admissions, permission is given on a first-come first-apply basis.

Tie-up

The Indian Navy and Centurion University of Technology and Management have signed a memorandum of understanding last week. It aims to provide training to Indian Navy personnel and educational opportunities to their wards in various programmes of the university, initially, for a period of 10 years. The MoU allows reservation of seats for children and wards of Indian Navy personnel in various engineering, management, agriculture and basic science programmes of the university at bachelor and postgraduate levels with concessions in course fees. Besides, it will offer customised courses for the Indian Navy personnel. During the signing in ceremony at INS Chilka, the Indian Navy was represented by the naval officer-in-charge (Odisha) Commander Rakesh Kumar Dahiya and while Centurion University was represented by Haribandhu Panda, Kalyan Banerjee and others.

Sanskrit course

North Odisha University has plans to start a postgraduate course in Sanskrit from the current academic session. Along with it, the plan for a BEd course is also being charted out. The newly appointed vice-chancellor, Prafulla Kumar Mishra, has conceded to the proposal of the Sanskrit teachers and scholars of Mayurbhanj district to start a postgraduate course in Sanskrit.

They had pleaded that the language is an ancient one and the district has enough treasure of manuscripts written in palm leaves which are yet to come to the knowledge of the people. “The VC assured us of starting the postgraduate course in Sanskrit from the current session. He, however, said since starting a BEd course would require approval of central technical committee, it won’t be possible to start the same from the current academic session,” said Madan Mohan Behera, a lecturer of Betnoti college. “The opening of postgraduate course in Sanskrit will not only provide an opportunity to the interested students, but will also encourage research scholars,” he added.

Students honoured

As many as 21 students, who had topped in Class X examinations in CBSE, ICSE and HSC boards, were felicitated by Kingston, one of the Odisha’s leading real estate company and an ally of Kandoi group in Cuttack. Instituted for the first time, the Kingston Education Awards were handed over to the meritorious students as well as their schools for good performance in Class X examinations. Odia film actress Archita Sahoo handed over the trophy and cash award to the students at a special event organised at Hotel Pramod here on June 21. Speaking on the occasion, chairman of Kingston group Ganesh Kandoi said that the main objective of organising such an event was to appreciate the students and schools for their hard work and labour.

Plus-II admissions

As many as 5,780 students have applied for Plus Two admissions in Khallikote Junior College. This includes 2,419 applications in arts, 2,302 in science and 1,059 in commerce streams. The last date for receipt of application was June 21. The number of seats in all these three streams is 432, 384 and 256 for arts, science and commerce respectively. College admission in-charge Manoj Kumar Patnaik said that the first list of students would be published on July 2.

However, no intimation letter for admission would be dispatched to the students this year. The name of the selected students according to merit would be placed in the website of the department of Higher Education and on the notice boards of the preferred colleges. The selected students would be intimated through SMS or their e-mail address.

Workshop

A regional workshop of programme officers of NSS was organised at Netaji Subash Chandra Bose (NSCB) College in Sambalpur last week. Programme officers of several colleges of Sambalpur, Bargarh, Jharsuguda, Sonepur, Sudergarh, Boudh and Deogarh district took part in the workshop. Deputy secretary of the Council of Higher Secondary Education Uttam Kumar Pradhan, regional director of higher education P.K. Mohapatra, state-level coordinators of NSS A. Jena and Sangram Keshari Rout attended the workshop. The event was presided over by the principal of the host college Nilendri Panda. The future course of action of NSS was discussed in the workshop. All the lecturers of the NSCB College also took part in the workshop.