Update on the universities for innovation
(Thanks to Devasis Sarangi for the pointers.)
Following is from a report in Financial Express.
The ministry of human resource development has zeroed down on 5 of the 14 proposed universities of innovation that would offer students one deep theme of innovation by focussing on one particular area each. The five areas are health, urban planning, energy, liberal arts and power around which an ecosystem of research and teaching would be built.
"These themes are at preliminary stages and the universities can come up only after the overarching body in higher education is in place,” said a ministry official.
The ministry has already started work on the University for Innovation in Liberal Arts but the varsity will be completely publicly funded as not much interest was generated among the private players on this subject.
"The university will be built in the memory of Rabindranath Tagore. It will teach music, physics and maths of music and its relation with the society and arts. Liberal arts will be looked at in an inter-disciplinary manner and not only as psychology or sociology,” said another official privy to the development. The National Development Council of the Planning Commission had approved the setting up of the 14 universities aiming at world class standards and dedicated to innovation across the 11th and 12th Plan period.
The universities are proposed to be located in Orissa, Kerala, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, among others. Each university will focus on one area, such as urbanisation, environmental sustainability and public health. The Innovation Universities can be established through multiple modes that is publicly funded, privately funded, public-private partnership or by eminent foreign universities.
"Of the foreign universities who have evinced interest are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Virginia Tech, Columbia University, University of Southern California and the University of Alabama," the official added.
While MIT has expressed interest in mentoring the university that is focused on the energy sector, Columbia University has already started a centre in Mumbai.
Following is an MHRD memorandum on the university for innovation in liberal arts.
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April 4th, 2011
