City edu hub’s study hard, live well plan draws youths

Bhubaneswar: Due to the presence of a large number of central, private and state government-run institutions, Bhubaneswar has emerged as an ideal education hub in eastern India.National institutes like IIT, AIIMS, NISER,

NIFT

, premier state institutions like Utkal University and OUAT among others and many private universities like Siksha O Anusandhan, KIIT, Xavier University Bhubaneswar, Birla Global University and Sri Sri University have been attracting students from India and even abroad with excellent research opportunities, international faculties and healthy infrastructure. In a changed scenario following the pandemic when students are preferring local institutes instead of going abroad, the city has become a preferred destination for higher education. Eight city universities offer a wide range of courses in general, professional and technical streams.Educationist and vice-chairman of the Odisha Higher Education Council, Ashok Das, said: “Bhubaneswar is special due to its ambience both in terms of academics and good living. Odias as hosts are incomparable. But the best aspect is the academic spectrum in terms of affordability, national rankings, multidisciplinary, depth and breadth of research-cum-teaching institutions, healthcare facilities and decent institutional accommodation. Where in India you have all these with Lord

Lingaraj

and Lord Jagannath to give solace?”“Higher educational institutions here have a stiff competition for admission as most of the students are looking for seats here. Our university, which ranks the top in Odisha as per the NIRF ranking, is also seeing a huge number of applicants,” said

Jyoti Ranjan Das

, dean of students’ welfare, Siksha O Anusandhan, a private deemed-to-be-university.