A varsity for tech institutes, city can fancy its chances

[dwarakesh]

The state government plans an independent technical university, to which all the engineering and management colleges will be affiliated. The higher and technical education department is expected to forward a proposal to the Cabinet soon and a final decision is expected in March.

The state has over 800 engineering and management institutes, with more than four lakh students. The idea is to bring all these colleges, affiliated to various traditional universities now, under one roof to ensure simplicity.

And many feel that Pune will be the right place. "Especially after losing out on the IIM proposal, the state government should consider forming the technical university in Pune," said a retired senior officer of the Directorate of Technical Education.

"The city boasts a number of well-known retired engineers who can be potential faculty members. It has a healthy educational environment and the industrial growth in and around the city will help provide hands-on training to students. The city is also well connected," he said.

Director of Technical Education S K Mahajan said, "A preliminary discussion on such a facility was held with representatives of engineering colleges some time ago and a note will soon be forwarded to the government. If an independent technical university is established, all the engineering, pharmacy and management colleges will be affiliated to it," he said.

Mahajan said the engineering college associations have been pursuing the matter for some time now.

Former Director of Technical Education and educationalist N B Pasalkar, during whose tenure the idea of such a facility was mooted, supported the idea.

"An independent technical university will also provide opportunities in research. The state universities are overburdened with the traditional colleges and hence they cannot pay much heed to the needs of technical institutes." The Karnataka government has already established an independent technical university in Belgaum.