Rourkela, March 18: The newly appointed vice-chancellor of Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT), Shyam Sundar Pattnaik, is set to introduce a programme to improve regular interactions between students and authorities.

Christened 'Talk to Your VC', the initiative will facilitate online interaction sessions with the students and redress their grievances. Pattnaik, who took over as the vice-chancellor on Monday, said the details about the programme would be worked out shortly.

'From now on, BPUT will mainly focus on three areas. They are the digitalisation of classrooms, rendering better service to the students and creating centres of excellence,' Pattnaik said.

He reiterated the fact that the students' plight at the university was miserable, and there was a long way to go to set things in order. He also spoke about holding examinations and publication of results on time. 'There will be nodal officers in each of the affiliated colleges. They will directly deal with the students' problems on a daily basis and keep us posted,' said the vice-chancellor.

The deputy director of examination has been instructed to clear all the backlogs. All leftover examinations need to take place within three months. On the digitalisation process of the classrooms, the VC said he aspired to launch a BPUT Youtube site where all lectures in the classrooms will be uploaded. 'We will have a tie-up with Google soon,' said Pattnaik.

'Soon there will be a data centre in Bhubaneswar. Senior faculty members will teach on their respective subjects, and the classes will be interactive. All the interactions would be uploaded on a Youtube link,' said Pattnaik.

Pattnaik also has plans to create centres of excellence at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, Sarang and the College of Engineering and Technology in Bhubaneswar. The varsity will also collaborate with some of the reputed private institutes to create excellence centres.

Regarding faculty appointment, the vice-chancellor said: 'I cannot ask the affiliated colleges to ramp up the faculty when my own house is not in order. My priority would be the appointment of faculty members at the earliest.'

He said: 'It is the director's prerogative to engage top notch companies and conduct placements in a centralised manner, since all the corporate houses cannot visit the colleges.'