Hyderabad: With supply orders from the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Dassault Systemes, Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM) has carved out a niche for itself in the higher-education space where equal emphasis is given to job training and theory.
The National Education Policy, 2020 demanded a shift from theory-oriented to skill-oriented courses. This shift was pioneered by the Centurion University way back in 2005.
Centurion University, which became a state-enacted university with NAAC 'A' grade in 2010, has seen rapid growth. In 2017, it was declared Odisha's first Skills University and just a year later in 2018 the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE) declared it India's first ‘centre of excellence’.
A tour of the university's Bhubaneswar campus gives a glimpse of what is working well for this university.
The campus is broadly divided into two categories - the education blocks, where theory is the area of focus, and the industrial-training workshops, where students make products based on the orders that the university receives.
In the Bhubaneswar campus, students were seen making the core of transformers. These transformers were being made for a supply order for the Tata Group.
In the campus’ welding laboratories, samples of high-precision tools and components that Isro had sourced from the university were kept on display.
In the workshops, students are seen using expensive equipment which could cost over Rs.1 crore.
"We don't buy a single piece of equipment," said vice-president and co-founder Prof. D.N. Rao, explaining how the university operates its skilling programmes.
"All these costly equipment are provided to us by these industrial giants. Take for instance, Dassault. If they want to set up a components manufacturing unit, then they approach us (or in some cases we approach them) with this proposition and we promise them a POC (proof of concept). We install the equipment and train our students on how to use it. In fact, they produce the goods themselves and then Dassault takes a call on whether the goods are up to the mark in terms of quality," he said.
"What this POC does is it proves that Dassault can manufacture such goods in India and that quality labour required for production is available in India," he said.
Today, Centurion University has constituent campuses in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
The skilling programmes are approved by the National Skill Development Corporation. These have durations of three months, six months and could even go on for as long as one year.
Students for these courses are generally from disadvantaged sections in Odisha and AP.
“Language is not a problem. See most Japanese and Germans don’t speak good English but they produce the best engineers. In short, the students have no trouble picking up skills because of English. English is more service-oriented and we are talking about skills here,” said Prof. Rao.
Centurion University’s regular UG, PG and PhD programmes, (like bachelors, masters degrees and so on) are in the disciplines of engineering, paramedics, management, agriculture, law, forensics, bio-engineering, among others.
A student appearing for the regular courses must mandatorily take some skilling programmes.
For example: a B.Tech student must select at least one new skilling course every semester. So, not only will a student pass with his/her engineering degree, he/she will also get eight certificates in subjects of his/her choice like welding, making transformers, etc.
The seeds of this university date back to 2005 when founders Prof. Mukti Kanth Misra and Prof. D.N. Rao took over reins of the failing Jagannath Institute of Technology and Management in Paralakhemundi village of Gajapati district, Odisha. It was the locals’ plea for making their sons job-ready that gave Centurion University its education model.
The university came up during a particularly critical period in the national context. In the early 2000s, India desperately wanted to become a manufacturing hub but the manpower available was not trained.
The International Labour Organization, in a 2003 study, said the graduates of Industrial Training Institutes and Industrial Training Centres in India were found performing below expectation. Similar reports had emerged from the Government of India and the World Bank.
That very need became the university’s byword; accordingly its official website claims “learning that is hands on, experience based and practice oriented”.
Two aspects are integral to the university's operations – sustainability and a sense of giving back to the community.
“Not a single drop of sewage waste from the university makes its way to the government’s drainage system. It is all treated in our in-house waste-to-water plants,” said Prof. Misra, going in detail on the culture of sustainability in the university.
The university also takes up training programmes, in partnership with businesses such as Cafe Coffee Day, Ashok Leyland, Volvo Eicher, Selco Foundation, among many others, for self-help groups and Anganwadi workers.
This was lauded by the United Nations General Assembly in its 67th session. “In India, the Centurion University of Technology and Management (Orissa) — the only State-enacted University in the private sector with its strong industrial linkage through its Social Entrepreneurship Outreach (Gram Tarang) and its focus on community — has excelled in providing skills to students from rural areas,” the UN had noted.
With such a stellar reputation, governments from India and abroad (Gabon, Morocco, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab) have requested the university authorities to set up a constituent campus in their respective states/countries.
However, Vice Chancellor Prof. Supriya Pattanayak explained the university is looking to play it safe at the moment.
"It is absolutely a big thing to start a new campus. However first, we must keep in mind the attrition rate of quality faculty. Then obviously there is a huge monetary investment. If you just see our electricity bill, you will understand,” Prof. Supriya Pattanayak chuckled, referring to the high power consumption of heavy machinery at the workshops.
In contrast to what one may think, data indicates that there are more girls in certain courses like nursing, allied sciences, forensics, paramedics, MCA, MSc, BSc and PhD.
