In an attempt to bridge the gap between academia and industry and to make the students industry-ready, the Andhra University, in partnership with Purdue University, U.S.A., will set up a Centre of Excellence on its south campus with an investment of ₹35.23 crore.

It will run from a four-storey building with the floor area of 20,000 sft, which will be built in the place where the old Fine Arts Department once existed.

State-of-the-art lab

The centre will lay a special focus on placement, employability of students and entrepreneurship.

“The centre will have a state-of-the-art laboratory, where pharmaceutical and and manufacturing industries can test their products. It will give an exposure to our students and research scholars to new inventions and technologies. The lab will be embedded with an entrepreneurship development cell and an innovation centre too,” Vice-Chancellor G. Nageswara Rao said, adding that it will offer apprenticeship in the EDC and act as a finishing school.

Giving details about the partnership for the project, the V-C said that AU had signed a partnership agreement with Purdue University in the U.S. for technology transfer, exchange of faculty and research scholars.

“The project will be funded by the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA). The Union Ministry for HRD has recently sanctioned ₹100 crore to AU as part of the funding initiative,” Mr. Nageswara Rao said.

Of the total RUSA fund, ₹21.77 crore will be spent on creating more infrastructure such as hostel buildings, drainage and classrooms. A sum of ₹17 crore has been earmarked for the new MBA College and the remaining will be spent on outreach programmes, faculty training and inviting professors from abroad.

New MBA college

“Modelled on par with the top B-Schools such as the IIMs, the new MBA college will be opened for admission from this academic year. Of the total 30 seats, 15 will be filled by students from the State. The students will be selected on the basis of CAT score,” Mr. Nageswara Rao said.

Apart from the curriculum, teaching methodology and infrastructure, the MBA college will have teachers from reputed universities abroad, he added.