Sep 18, 2004 06:18 AM
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(Updated Sep 18, 2004 06:35 AM)
AMITY is one of the private universities in India, which are a recent phenomenon, but their growth has been really spectacular over the past decades or so. I tried to find out without success whether AMITY is an acronym. India has 290 universities, but it is now dotted by many private universities and institutions of higher learning.
According to the C-fore Survey, AMITY has been ranked as the No. 1 private university in India. Launched by Industrialist Ashok Chouhan, and his young and dynamic son Aseem is actually managing AMITY which has 18 campuses all over India. It offers courses in Management ( Marketing, Finance,HR, Entrepreneurship ), Computer Science, Information Technology, Law, Biotechnology, Psychology, Marine Science, Engineering ( Electrical and Communication ), Insurance and Risk Management, Fine Arts, Mass Communication, Journalism, Advertising and Rural Management. Thank God, it has not dared to offer courses in Nuclear Physics, Atomic Reactors, Rocketry and Space Research.
Now the million dollar questions are : Who are the faculty members to develop, design and teach these courses ? What are their credentials ? How successful they are in guiding their students, both in the class rooms and in te field ? Does AMITY have the system of hiring visiting and adjunct faculty?
AMITY charges very high fees. Therefore, only the rich parents can send their children. The poor and bright students have no place here. It is pro-rich and anti-poor.
Now from personal knowledge. A close relative of mine is a faculty member of the Bhubaneswar Campus of AMITY. It has its corporate office at Forest Park, and its Campus is being constructed. I am given to understand that there was only one student who sought admission to the Mass Communication & Journalism Programme. I am not surprised, because Orissa has better places like the Indian Institute of Mass Communication ( Dhenkanal ) where one could go for the prestigious Post-Graduate Diploma Programme, recognised all over the world. About hiring the faculty, AMITY Bhubaneswar people are not very clear, may be, father Ashok and son Aseem themselves are not clear.
If you ask me whether I would send my children to AMITY, my answer would be a loud NO.
