Bhubaneswar, Oct. 29: Utkal University is planning to set up a foreign language study centre shortly.

In the first phase, five languages — Japanese, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian — will be taught, and later, more languages will be included.

“A centre of this kind will enrich the academic profile of the university and benefit many students, who are interested in such courses,” said state’s higher education secretary Gagan Dhal, adding that these courses would help increase job opportunities for the students.

The higher education secretary also announced a central instrumentation centre in Utkal University.

“Experimentation happens to be a major component of training and research. In order to sustain the continuous interest of students, they ought to be provided with sophisticated instruments for teaching and advanced research. At present, instruments in the varsity are found scattered here and there,” he said.

“The centralised instrumentation centre will be a well-planned structure with all sophisticated instruments under one facility for their maximum utilisation and facilitate academic and research community,” said Utkal University vice-chancellor Ashok Kumar Das.

These announcements were made at the conference of principals of 16 autonomous colleges under Utkal University organised by the College Development Council of the varsity. The conference aimed to evolve a common syllabus for undergraduate-level courses as well as having a common academic calendar in all autonomous colleges to bring in uniformity. At present, there is no uniformity in syllabus and examination system, said a senior official of the higher education department.

“Since the autonomous colleges make their own syllabus and examinations are held on various dates, there is hardly any common ground among them. The higher education department also wants the autonomous colleges to follow a common academic calendar, so that examinations can be held on the same dates every year,” said Santosh Tripathy, director of the College Development Council.

The principals, UGC co-ordinators and the controllers of examination of all 16 colleges attended the conference. Dhal also emphasised on the need to revamp higher education in the state for ensuring quality improvement. He also said the state government would go for World Bank assistance for teachers’ training and exchange programme for quality improvement.

The department will take steps to fill up of the vacant posts by November, providing financial support for research and innovation, common curriculum and uniform examination system and enhancing residential facility for 20,000 more students in the state, he said.