In an ambitious move, the Karnataka government is putting together a committee to identify and develop one college in each district and form a 'Super 30' of engineering colleges in the state, à la mathematician Anand Kumar.

The committee will focus on providing quality teaching in every district to meet industry standards. The committee — headed by Prof Karisiddappa, Vice-Chancellor, Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), will comprise academicians, industry leaders, and officials among others. This was decided in the preliminary meeting chaired by CN Ashwath Narayan, the Minister for Higher Education, on Friday, October 22.

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Government colleges will be included in this project on priority, and in districts without a government college, the committee will take on board private engineering colleges, and all of these will be developed as model colleges. Those institutes already known for quality and high standards of teaching and learning will not be considered for this initiative.  The development would primarily concentrate on faculty training, industry collaborations, setting up of laboratories, foreign collaborations, and such aspects rather than physical infrastructure, the Minister emphasised.

To begin with, one department in each selected college will be taken up for upgradation and later on, it will be expanded to the whole college. The funds needed for this effort will be shared in the ratio of 1/3rd by CSR funding of companies, 1/3rd by VTU, and 1/3rd by the institution itself, Narayana explained. It was decided in the meeting to connect the selected colleges with the leading industries and to allow industries to guide the colleges as anchoring institutes. It was also suggested to loop in alumni students in this attempt.