Bio-tech degree in 25 Govt colleges soon

The New Indian Express, March 30, 2007

BHUBANESWAR: With the increasing demand for biotechnology among students, the State Government has decided to introduce the course at graduation level in 25 of its colleges.

Meanwhile, some of the Government colleges, including BJB College here and FM College, Balasore, have already started self-financing courses in bio-technology from the 2006- 07 academic session with due approval from the Higher Education Department.

Minister for Higher Education Samir Dey told this website’s newspaper that the Government has decided to introduce bio-technology as a regular course in 25 colleges to meet the growing demand.

The course will be introduced when necessary infrastructure in these colleges is put in place and teachers are appointed.

The intake capacity of BJB College for B Sc (Bio-tech) is 24 and course fee Rs 12,000 per annum. However, private educational institutions offering the course are charging more.

Once it is introduced as a regular course, the admission to B Sc (Bio-tech) will be purely on merit and the students taking admission in the subject would not have to pay anything extra, the Minister said.

The seat strength in each college will be fixed as per the demand. He, however, said the subject will continue as a self-financing course in the Government colleges where it is being taught.

The self-financing courses are demand-driven, he said and added those students who failed to make it to free seats can take admission in the self-financing course.

Apart from BJB College, Basic Science College under OUAT is also offering a g r a d u a t i o n course in biotechnology.

The Higher Education Department has decided to introduce the subject in Ram Devi, Sailabala (Twin City), Gangadhar Meher (Sambalpur), Khallikote Berhampur), MPC (Baripada), SCS (Puri), Rajendra (Balangir), NC (Jajpur), Bhadrak College, Dhenkanal College, SKCG (Parlakhemundi), DD (Keonjhar), DAV (Koraput), Vikaram Dev (Jeypore), Panchayat (Bargarh), Government Science College (Chattrapur), and Government colleges at Angul, Rourkela, Sundaragar, Phulbani and Bhawanipatna.

Ravenshaw and Utkal University are offering post-graduation courses in bio-technology.