Sarojini Ganju Thakur, Chairperson of the newly constituted Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HPPEIRC) accompanied by Member Secretary of the Board S.C. Saklani visited Chitkara University and the Baddi University of Emerging Science and Technology (BUEST) in the Baddi-Barotiwala area recently and had detailed review with both Vice Chancellors and interacted with faculty and students.
She inspected classrooms, hostels, medical, recreational and transportation facilities for the 2,200 students that the university had already admitted. She suggested the authorities to get experienced people as faculty which was critical for maintaining the standard of teaching and for a credible research programme which was an essential function of the university.
She stressed upon the need to develop a clear vision plan when more courses in various disciplines would be added to those being offered currently. She also emphasized the need for the expansion of laboratory facilities in a time bound manner and said that real test of the university would be the nature of placements obtained by the first batch finishing in 2012.
At BUEST, which had existed since 2002 as a college and had only been upgraded to university status in 2009 she noted that there are multiple institutes offering a wide variety of courses in management, engineering and pharmacy. She observed that the courses were employment oriented and over 90% of the students are from Himachal. She said that it was important in view of its long existence to offer a research programme which could attract talent from outside the university. It would also be an indicator of the areas in which the faculty matched the standards that are required.
