Around forty colleges, mostly privately-run, have appealed to the Odisha Higher Education Department for permission to commence new courses and to onboard more students.
These colleges have filed an appeal to the State Higher Education Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo to allow them to run new courses in science, management, arts and commerce. Keeping an eye on the downturn in viability due to the ongoing pandemic, these institutions have also requested to allow an increase in the approved intake of students.
The minister’s office has said that he will look into the petitions on August 28 and August 31 respectively, and then pass an order on the same. The representatives from the colleges who have applied may attend the hearing and present their views, the statement said.
Prasant Rout, who heads the Raja Madhusudan Dev Degree College of Science and Education, Patia, said that his college intends to start new courses in the field of Computer Science and Home Science. For facilitating the same, the college has also undertaken an infrastructure upgrading drive and has also built a computer lab for the benefit of the students, he said.
Recently, the Higher Education Department had asked the heads of institutions to ensure compliance concerning fee structures and to bring in uniformity. Presently, some colleges apply two different fee structures for regular degree courses as well.