Posts filed under ‘Sambalpur University’
Academic progress of Sambalpur University
Following is a report from the Sambad:
Sambalpur University approve a proposal for recognition of Kosli language
The Kosli language movement is moving ahead! Sambalpur University will send a proposal to Indian govt. for its recognition in the 8th schedule. Today’s Sambad (Sambalpur edition) has published this news item on íts front page: http://wp.me/pFC4h-1ml
Few weeks before Sri Sriballav Panigrahi had met the president of India and requested him to look in to the Kosli language issue
Sambalpur university starts three new PG courses
BHUBANESWAR: Sambalpur University has experienced a mixed bag this academic year as far as new courses are concerned. While its post graduate course on rural management, introduced this year, failed to appeal to students, forcing the authorities to put the course in abeyance, two new courses on masters in Hindi and masters in performing art (MPA) have found ready takers.
The University had introduced rural management, a self-finance course in this education year with a sanctioned strength of 20 students. There were only 14 applicants of which 11 took admission. Since this is a self-financing course, the University declined to run it with only 11 students. “We had to put the course in abeyance for this education year because of poor response from students. However, we will release advertisements again for the course in the coming year,” said Sukadeb Naik, chairman of PG council. He said that the 11 students were asked either to take admission in sociology or take back the admission fee.
University registrar Sudhansu Sekhar Rath said the rural management course was designed as per Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) and it is not known why there were so few applications. “The course modules were of good standard. We kept the course under sociology department to maintain quality,” said Rath. He suspected less publicity about the course could be the reason of low student interest.
Other two new courses by the university — masters in Hindi and masters in performing art (MPA) – have, however, received good response from students. These two courses are regular ones. “This education year while for Hindi we received 54 applications against sanctioned strength of 16 students, for MPA, we received 23 forms against strength of 16 each for dance and drama section. So the ratio between number of application and students strength is quite high in Hindi department. We are hopeful that MPA will also pick up,” said Naik.
He said because of MPA the university won’t have to hire artistes from outside for participating in different cultural shows on the campus. “Earlier we were required to hire performers by paying them good money for participating in various cultural shows. Not anymore, thanks to MPA,” Naik said.
Sambalpur University inks Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with College of Charleston
Following report is from the Sambad:
Sambalpur University to set up a centre for rural management
Following report is from the Telegraph:
Sambalpur, April 17: Sambalpur University here has sought the permission of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Delhi, to set up a centre for rural management on its campus.
The syndicate of Sambalpur University had earlier approved the draft proposal of the requirements for the proposed centre, which is now under UGC’s consideration for fund allocation under the 12th Five Year Plan.
“According to the UGC guidelines, the university has submitted two parallel scenarios for the requirements of developmental assistance. A detailed budget of Rs 36.3 crore and Rs 60.95 crore had been submitted to the commission for the scenario one and scenario two requirements, respectively,” said spokesperson of the university Rajat Kujur.
He said a separate proposal of Rs 5.82 crore for other developmental work had also been submitted to the UGC.
“The draft proposal highlights the requirements pertaining to building, staff members, library, campus development, healthcare, students’ amenities, new research activities, new extension activities and outreach programmes,” Kujur said.
As a part of new extension activities and outreach programmes, the university has proposed to conduct training, workshop and awareness programmes on legal rights, human rights, consumer protection and economic rights and organic solid waste management.
“Our vision is to transform the university into a knowledge centre through capacity building, consolidating infrastructure, faculty strengthening, congenial study atmosphere, quality research and incorporating innovative approaches of human development. We want to make the university one of the top ranking institutions in the state,” said Kujur.
Besides the centre of rural management, the university has included several other plans in its draft proposal, including conducting research studies. The topics for research are impact assessment of Sambalpur University educational system on the students of marginalised communities, on Gandhamardan hill resources, impact assessment of Hirakud reservoir and treatment of municipal wastewater by root zone technology.
Alleged Plagiarism case in Sambalpur University, Jyoti Vihar: A Global View
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Sanjib Kumar Karmee <sanjibkarmee@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 12:23 PM
Subject: OTN: Alleged plagiarism case in Sambalpur University, Jyoti Vihar: A Global View
To: govori@ori.nic.in, govodisha@nic.in, cmo@ori.nic.in, cmo@nic.in, registrar@suniv.ac.in, vc@suniv.ac.in, nmahakud@gmail.com, behera.dk@gmail.com, arun.k.pujari@gmail.com, akpcs@uohyd.ernet.in
Cc: Samukhya <samukhya@yahoogroups.com>, KDDF <westernodisha@googlegroups.com>, orissatoday@googlegroups.com, orissa-education-forum@googlegroups.com, Orissa Pioneer <orissapioneer@gmail.com>, “Editor of orissadiary.com” <editor@orissadiary.com>, “orissadiary .com” <orissadiary@gmail.com>
After reading a report in the Times of India (27th March 2012), I went back to read the original article written by ex-VC of Sambalpur University Prof. Arun Kumar Pujari. [1] In his blog www.sweekaarokti.blogspot.in Prof. Pujari posted a write-up entitled “Plagiarism and Jyoti Vihar”.
Here is the link to original blog post by Prof. AK Pujari:
http://www.sweekaarokti.blogspot.in/2012/03/plagiarism-and-jyotivihar.html
The blog post of Prof. AK Pujari starts with the plagiarism row happened in IISc Bangalore. This incident made headlines in India while it was found that a publication by Prof. Rao, Prof. Krupanidhi along with two students Basant Chitara and L. S. Panchakarla lifted few sentences from another publication.[2] Later the authors apologized to the journal. Not only that, the lead authors even wrote to the editor to withdraw the paper. But, the article was retained by the editor citing its importance. Basant Chitara (the PhD student) had said that he had lifted few sentences without realizing its consequence.
Recently, I came to know that the Hungarian president Pal Schmitt was stripped of his doctorate title for plagiarism and later he had resigned from his job because of this case.[3] Similarly, earlier a German minister Mr. Guttenberg gave up his doctorate title because of plagiarism. [4] I can just go on as there are thousands of such examples. Two academician, Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky have been maintaing a nice blog on plagirism (http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/) and alerting the research community about it. I often visit this blog and find it useful.
These incidents indicate following things:
Culture and attitude problem:
We are promarily a copy paste society. In most of our primary schools we start mogging everything before the examination and we write exactly what is written in books. Such practices are common across India as it fetch marks to students. I was told by some of my IIT Madras friends that some of the IIT-coaching centres too follow similar practices. But, at the end students succeed in examination and this makes both the students and their parents happy. But in this process a part of the creativity is lost.
Lack of knowledge about plagiarism among Masters and PhD students:
In most of the Indian Universities there are no short term courses to on plagiarism. Various Universities in the Netherlands and Germany, where I have done most of my research work do organize seminars and short term courses on plagiarism. Such activities make the students aware of the consequences of plagiarism and how to avoid such cases. Recently, in India IITs, IISc and other institutes are taking initiatives to organize such awareness programmes.
Lack of time to supervise Masters and PhD students:
Plagiarism cases are common in the group where professors are heavily engaged in research and teaching without thinking about their time availability. Many Professors think that having well equipped labs and whole lot of research students will fetch them good numbers of publications. But, doing good science is not about labs and students. It is also about regular discussions (of (literature and research findings) with research students, proper supervision and thorough checkup of the manuscripts. Some times Professors are unable to perform all these duties because of lack of time and large size of the group. Thus, my conclusion is that the group leaders should give adequeate time to PhD students. They should instruct each new students on how to write a manuscript and also, let the students know about the consequences of plagiarism.
Too much work pressure:
Every now and then some supervisors ask the research students to produce results and publish papers. Because of too much pressure; some cases of plagirisms are reported with regard to scientific result manipulation.
After having analyzed the possible causes of plagiarism; let us take a look on the case of Sambalpur University case. Prof. AK Pujari mainly talks about two things: i) students are coping from teacher’s notes, books, and from internet sources while writing the examination. and ii) Plagiarism of PhD thesis books in Sambalpur University. The first thing is common acsoss in India and as I have pointed out earlier it is a cultural problem. Here as a society we need to change.
Now let us take a look on the allegations by Prof Pujari about the PhD thesis plagiarism in Sambalpur University. I have nothing against Prof. Pujari. But, why Prof. Pujari was so far silent in this case? He has said that he was threatened. However, I feel that, he could have formed a committe to look in to this matter as soon as he was aware of it. In most of the European Universities there are committees to investigate cases of plagiarism and to punish the academicians. Why Prof. Pujari did not constitute such a committe for Sambalpur University? If, what he says is true, then he was just watching helplessly while there was growing plagiarism in Sambalpur University. In this regard, Prof. Pujari owe a proper explanation to all aluminous , present students and staff of Sambalpur University.
Immediately, the present VC, Prof. Barik should call a meeting of the senate, members of student council, members of staff council, and alumni association. After that a committee should be formed to investigate the case of plagiarism of PhD thesis in Sambalpur University. In the mean time, Prof. Pujari should prepare a list of PhD thesis which he think are plagiarised. In fact, he should handover this list and other evidences to chancellor-his highness Shri Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare, VC of Sambalpur University, Media and other SU affiliated bodies.
At this point, there is no point in attacking each other (as reported in TOI and other new papers). Let the investigation complete and it will be for all of us to see the truth. In fact, the Sambalpur University authority should scan the alleged plagiarized PhD thesis and put it on the internet; so that, we can check for ourselves if the allegations made by ex-VC are true. If the allegations are found to be false, then the University authority should file a defamation case against Prof. Pujari and proceed further.
References:
2.http://www.nature.com/news/indian-science-adviser-caught-up-in-plagiarism-row-1.10102
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17586128
4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12532877
—
Dr. Sanjib Kumar Karmee, PhD
Alumnus, Sambalpur University (MSc Chemistry, 2000 Batch),
Odisha, India
Clipping autonomy will hurt the growth of Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology (SUIIT)
See the following TOI report. Some people are proposing to bring Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology (SUIIT) under Sambalpur University Such a move will hamper the growth of the institute because it will lose its decision making and administrative power to Sambalpur University. All of us know that Sambalpur University administration is too slow because it is already overloaded with work of many affiliated degree colleges.
The govt. is taking steps to make some colleges autonomous; thus reducing the work load of Sambalpur University to some extent. Sambalpur University should cut down such unnecessary work load and devote it-self completely towards opening more undergraduate, PG and integrated PhD courses.
To hold or not to hold SUIIT hand
BHUBANESWAR: Proposals are gaining ground to bring Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology (SUIIT) under varsity statutes. A large section of the university fraternity, however, is strongly opposing any move to dilute the autonomy of SUIIT.
The two-year-old self-sustaining institute, considered the biggest success story ever for the varsity, enjoys complete financial, administrative and academic autonomy as of now. “We are not against autonomy of SUIIT. But since it is a constituent of the varsity, it should be within the framework of university statute and University Grants Commission (UGC) rules, as enjoyed by other autonomous departments of the varsity,” said professor B K Tripathy, a member of the varsity Syndicate, a representative body of educationists in the varsity. “We have requested the vice-chancellor that the matter should be discussed in the next Syndicate meeting,” he said.
A brainchild of former vice-chancellor Arun Pujari, the institute was established in 2010 as an autonomous constituent of SU. It imparts MCA, B.Tech, M.Tech and M.Sc in computer science, M.Sc in electronics and M.Sc in bioinformatics in a self-financing mode. Some of these courses were pulled out from different existing departments of the varsity and brought under SUIIT. The state government had given an initial budget of Rs 10 crore in 2009-10 for the institute.Directorate of Distance and Continuing Education (DDCE) of the varsity gave another Rs 5 crore for construction of its buildings.
Those lobbying to bring it under the varsity statute say there are other departments in the varsity, which are also running self-financing courses. So, why should SUIIT be given so much special privilege? “The idea is to bring transparency in SUIIT functioning and strengthen it further,” said professor Antaryami Panda, a Syndicate member and director of Academic Staff College.
Currently, a governing board and an executive council under the vice-chancellor takes decisions on the functioning of the institute. Though the VC nominates two Syndicate members to the board, neither the Syndicate nor the Senate (the apex decision making body of the varsity) has direct say in its affairs. SUIIT appoints its own faculty on contract and arranges visiting faculty from internally generated funds.
Members of the varsity fraternity said since the model of the institute is on the lines of International Institute of Information Technology, Bhubaneswar, it should be left to grow on its own. “The university should do hand holding for initial few years and gradually give it more autonomy. That will help the institute to grow. Bringing it under the varsity may kill the institute,” said Bhabani Hota, president of All India University Employees’ Confederation.
The University Employees Association has strongly opposed any attempt to curtail the SUIIT autonomy. “Some vested interests are trying to ruin SUIIT. We will agitate against any such attempt. It has brought glory for the university,” said Mahendra Mishra, president of the association. SUIIT, which offers B.Tech in IT and computer science, should expand and open B.Tech in civil, electrical and mechanical disciplines, he added.
Kosal Discussion and Development Forum 