India set to get first univ for petroleum studies
| The Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) is all set to launch India's first university dedicated to engineering and management education in the oil and gas sector. |
| The university will come up near Gujarat National Law University at Koba village. GSPC is negotiating with faculties of the University of Texas Austin to design its curriculum for graduate- and post-graduate level engineering courses. |
| It is also exploring the possibility of a similar tie-up for its proposed post-graduate management programme in the hydrocarbon sector. |
| "A huge jump in oil and natural gas prices in the last few years, followed by a sudden rise in exploration and production (E&P) activities worldwide, has compelled GSPC to have its own pool of educated and trained manpower to support its existing and future activities," said D J Pandian, managing director, GSPC. |
| Most of the oil companies in the private- and even public sectors are facing a massive shortage of skilled manpower in the petroleum engineering and hydrocarbon sectors. |
| Pandian said the hit is felt more at the middle- and lower levels where there are young employees who can be easily lured by fat pay packages promises for higher positions. |
| Prof J P Gupta, Director General, Gujarat Energy Research & Management Institute (GERMI) promoted by GSPC for its education and research programme said: "We shortly expect a clearance from the state government allowing us to function as an autonomous university with graduate- and post-graduate programmes in engineering and management." |
| GERMI plans to introduce its first programme by September this year and a campus has been built on the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar highway by GSPC towards this end. The state-of-the-art campus is expected to be commissioned by August or September. |
| A former head of the Centre for Petroleum and Geosystem of University of Texas Austin is with GERMI for the design of curriculum for graduate- and post-graduate degree programmes. For on-site work experience and technical support for the engineering programmes, GSPC would be using its own in house talent, said Gupta. |
| Gupta, who was previously with IIT Kanpur as professor of department of chemicals engineering, said for the proposed university GSPC has allocated 17.5 acres of land for GERMI. |
| For the management programme, GSPC has applied for clearance to AICTE. The Letter of Intent for the hydrocarbon management programme was issued by AICTE just last week. |
| "The first three stages of clearances are almost through. Its just that the last phase is left where a visit by AICTE experts committee is scheduled soon for final clearance," said Gupta. |
| The faculty recruitment would be the most crucial phase for the project as not many experts are available in this field with crucial on hand experience and good academic background, said Gupta. |