ERIC Number: EJ773401
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Jul-13
Pages: 1
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-5982
EISSN: N/A
In Rural India, an Ambitious Academic Vision
Neelakantan, Shailaja
Chronicle of Higher Education, v53 n45 pA26 Jul 2007
A few miles outside the town of Puri, in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, lies Beladala, a farming village of thatch-roofed homes. Beladala and 17 other villages, comprising farms, homesteads, and pastures, are slated to be acquired by Anil Agarwal, a metals-and-mining mogul whose company, Vedanta Resources, has made the 53-year-old industrialist a fortune of $3.8-billion. On the 6,750 acres that he plans to buy with the blessing of the government, which will lease him another 800 acres, Agarwal intends to build a $3.5-billion university. In 2023, when it is scheduled to be completed, Vedanta University is expected to house 100,000 students and 40,000 faculty and staff members. But long before that, farmers in the area will be driven out--by India's laws of eminent domain--to seek new jobs and a new way of life elsewhere. The Indian government has allowed this to occur because the country desperately needs more universities. In this article, the author examines the controversial issues behind Agarwal's project. The author also examines how India's education system has failed to keep up with the needs of the booming economy.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Rural Areas, Access to Education, Government Role, Social Problems, Educational Quality, Relevance (Education), Teaching Conditions, Rural Farm Residents, Colleges, Site Development
Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: India
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A