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New, 400-bed hostel for female students of COEP
Highlighting the difficulties faced by students from rural areas in paying hostel fees, Patil announced financial assistance for 10 select female students
The College of Engineering Pune (COEP) Technological University will soon get a new, 400-bed hostel for female students while 10 female students from financially weaker backgrounds will receive scholarships of ₹10,000 per month for 10 months, totalling ₹1 lakh each. Maharashtra higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil made the announcements at the university’s third convocation ceremony on Sunday.
Patil said that the hostel project will be taken up on priority and that efforts will be made to mobilise the required funds through corporate social responsibility (CSR). He said that proposals for the project have already been reviewed, and expressed hope that construction will begin within a month and that the facility will be ready by June.
Highlighting the difficulties faced by students from rural areas in paying hostel fees, Patil announced financial assistance for 10 select female students. Each student will receive ₹10,000 per month for 10 months, amounting to ₹1 lakh. In another student-support initiative, the minister announced a provision for 50 students to earn up to ₹2,000 per month through work assigned by the university through the ‘earn and learn’ scheme. The students will be paid ₹60 per hour, with the university responsible for providing them with suitable work.
Patil made the announcements at the convocation ceremony of the COEP Technological University that was attended by Maharashtra governor and chancellor Jishnu Dev Varma, university officials, graduating students and their parents.
Patil also said that the state government’s initiatives to reduce financial barriers to higher education had helped narrow the gender gap in enrolment. Referring to the fee waiver for female students from families with an annual income below ₹8 lakh across 842 courses, Patil said that the difference between male and female enrolment had fallen from 16% two years ago to around 3.5% last year. He said preliminary estimates suggest that female enrolment could exceed male enrolment this year.
Patil also urged the COEP to develop short-term and employment-oriented courses that could be accessible to students from rural areas and enable them to start earning soon after completing their education. He said the university should strengthen research, innovation and entrepreneurship, and develop research that could result in patents and royalties. He also announced that a 235-acre research facility is being developed at Chikhali with government and CSR support, and stressed the need for research at the level of premier institutions while ensuring that it addresses societal needs.
The minister said, “COEP currently has around 7,000 students pursuing undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes,” and expressed hope that the number would rise to 10,000 in the near future.”
He urged graduating students to move beyond a conventional job-seeking mindset and become entrepreneurs and job creators, while asking the COEP to play a larger role in the development of other educational institutions and society.
