UPES: Training young minds

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UPES: Training young minds
Utpal Ghosh, President, UPES

Many graduates from UPES have secured jobs in the Gulf and the Middle East

By Nithin Belle

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Published: Thu 25 Jan 2018, 11:00 PM

Last updated: Sun 28 Jan 2018, 6:47 PM

The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) was set up in 2003 under the UPES Act, 2003 of the Uttarakhand legislature to provide higher education in areas including energy, infrastructure, transportation, information technology, design, public policy and legal studies. 
Now known as just UPES, it has emerged as a major higher education institution in India, offering a wide range of courses including energy, engineering, computer science, design, business and law.
"We have nearly 13,000 students at our campus," explains Utpal Ghosh, President, UPES. "Our annual intake is about 4,500 students." New entrants are taken on the basis of entrance exams. And every year, about 500 to 600 companies visit the campus to recruit students graduating out of various courses.
"This year, 2,400 of our students were placed with various companies," explains Ghosh. In fact, many of the graduates also land jobs in the Gulf and the Middle East, especially in sectors including oil and gas, banking and infrastructure.
"We had an alumni meet in Dubai in which more than 80 former students working in the region turned up," says Ghosh. "Our students are getting picked up by companies in the region."
UPES also gets students from the Middle East and Africa, especially those from NRI families living there. 
The university today has 79 under-graduate and masters programmes across nearly half-a-dozen schools. "We also have strong partnerships with industry majors including IBM for our computer sciences programme," he explains. 
The School of Law offers basic and specialised law courses in corporate law, energy specialisation, taxation laws and technical courses like Intellectual Property Rights and Cyber law.
According to Ghosh, the university is looking out for further collaborative tie-ups with other institutions. Interestingly, while many universities send their students out for internships, UPES sends its faculty out on such internships. "We have tie-ups with different industries and our faculty members spend four to six weeks during the summer and winter breaks working in the industries," he adds.
And once they return to the university, their quality of teaching, taking up projects and case studies change dramatically. 
The university is also planning to introduce new courses over the next few months. "Design is going to be a major focus for us and a lot of students are keen on pursuing these courses," he says. "We are also looking at health sciences and healthcare."
UPES is also the only university in India to feature some fascinating things that are of interest to students and visitors. For instance, it is the only varsity to have a fully operational oil rig on campus. 
"The rig was fabricated in Gujarat and was trucked all the way to our campus," points out Ghosh.
The rig was designed and developed by the UPES faculty and is managed by a special team.
Similarly, it is the only university to have an actual MIG-23 on the campus. The Indian Air Force donated it - the airframe was gifted from the Halwara air base, while the Kanpur air force station presented the engine. It also has a Tatra truck on the campus, which was provided by the Indian Army to facilitate R&D in land defence systems. Other such interesting features include a solar installation that is expected to generate 120,000 KW of power and a one KW wind turbine mill.
Other features at the sprawling university include sports complexes and playgrounds, well-maintained buildings and open laboratories. 
 - supplements@khaleejtimes.com 


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