Andhra Pradesh set to become a hive of education activity

Visakhapatnam: The education sector in Andhra Pradesh has evolved considerably over the past couple of years with the arrival of big-ticket institutions such as IIT, IIM, IIIT, NIT, the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy, and IISER. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) that is coming up in Mangalagiri will soon be added to the list of illustrious institutions in AP.

Apart from Central institutions, several private universities such as Centurion, VIT, SRM, and Amity will also be set up in the state; they will begin their academic programmes from this year onwards.

According to officials, over 30 private institutions have submitted investment portfolios and land requirements to the State Government. Several of these institutions are focused on specialised sectors such as energy, logistics, spirituality, fisheries, and hospitality. So far, the proposals of 10 private institutes have been approved.

Observers predict that institutes such as VIT, SRM, Amity, Centurion, Amrita University, and XLRI will change the face of education in the state. VIT-AP University and SRM University will be established in Amaravati, the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) and Great Lake International University will run their operations from Sri City in Chittoor District, and Centurion University will be set up in Vizianagaram.

Prof. G.S.N. Raju, the Vice-Chancellor of Centurion University and the former Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University, says that the university will begin its programmes this year itself, from a temporary campus at Anandapuram in Vizag district. “A permanent campus of about 200 acres will come up in Vizianagaram district over the next two years. A major thrust will be given to skill-based education, and for this, we will establish laboratories for virtual and augmented reality, the internet of things, data analytics, and robotics,” he said.

Paucity of funds dent progress
The State Government launched many universities between 2006 and 2009, to ensure that each district had at least one institute of higher education. However, the development of these universities has been stunted as a result of the paucity of funds, inadequate infrastructure and the lack permanent faculty.