Approval
On April 26 and 27 of 2006, the Vice Chancellors of various universities of AP met under the chairmanship of Professor KC Reddy and agreed in principle to establish 21CG Post-Graduate IT Academies. The proposal was approved by the Chief Minister of AP on April 27 with instructions to proceed with the establishment of 21CGs in every district.
Schedule
In subsequent meetings, VCs approved the start date of October 2006 timeframe to begin operations of the first five to seven 21CGs: Tirupati, Vizag, Sri Sailam, Anantapur, Kuppam, and two other locations TBD with a strength of 100 students in each location.
The first batch of the entering class is expected to begin studies in the first week of October, 2006. Since all the facilities will not be ready and available, they will be accommodated in temporary locations until such time as the campus buildings begin to become available. Progress on these construction projects will be updated daily through the use of multiple monitoring cameras providing real time access to the status at each location.
Admissions
It is proposed that the entrance examinations will be held using the EAMCET examination process throughout the state in the last week of August. But rather than producing a single state-wide list, there will be a separate ranked list for each local Mandal which will also take into account the reservation criteria.
We expect to admit annually about 4 students from each Mandal on the NTSLB basis discussed earlier, resulting in annual intake of about 250 students in each 21CG and a state wide intake of about 5000. The admissions of these students will be staggered on a quarterly basis with approximately one fourth of the students beginning their remedial education every quarter. The number of students starting in any given quarter will be subject to the availability of computer clusters and residential accommodations. It is anticipated that uniform admissions will become possible within twelve months as 21CG campus facilities begin to become available.
Faculty Selection, Deputation and Recruitment
Two types of faculty will be required. General Subjects for remedial training and IT subjects leading to MTech and MS in IT.
The general subjects for which faculty will be needed and each University is requested to depute are, English speaking and writing, Mathematics for quantitative and Analytical Reasoning, select IAS subjects including Telugu language paper. Since the 21CG program is full calendar year and involves more hours a week than usual, it is requested that the salary levels be set at 50% higher than comparable positions in conventional educational institutions..
The Faculty needed for the IT subjects and for soft skills will be provided by CIHL as part of the existing "Learning by Doing" CMU based content.
Staff Selection, Deputation and Recruitment
The staff for the morning PT and sports and administration will be requested from DoD along the Sainik school guidelines. As many functions as possible will be outsourced to short-listed state-wide suppliers.
Selection of Campus Locations
A few of the 22 campus locations in all of the rural districts of AP have already been identified. The remaining locations are expected to be selected and announced in the July/August, 2006 timeframe by the Vice Chancellors. This list will be made available at the website as soon as location details are formalized.
Campus Design and Construction
It is proposed that all the 21CGs have the same campus layout and architecture. The preliminary proposed architecture and layout of all the campuses is provided at the website. More detailed Architect-designed drawings and structural details will be made available as soon as they are ready.
It is expected that a small number of reputed contractors will be pre-qualified from the responses to the advertisement requesting "Letters of Interest" from qualified contractors. Each of these contractors will be given the opportunity to demonstrate the quality and the speed with which they are able to complete the assignments thereby leading to additional assignments.
Finance Plan
The capital expenditures for the campus construction will be partially supported by the state government in the form of partial interest support for five years. The remaining financing will be through bank loans, which is expected to be paid off from allocation from tuitions received.
SBH and SBI have been contacted and expressed willingness to handle the student loans at up to 5 lakhs per student at a 9% interest rate. A meeting is to be scheduled between Chairman of APSCHE and MD of SBH.
The annual tuition per year is nominally Rs.90,000 (actually, after including the cost of Laptop during the first year and annual hostel cost, annual payments will be 150+120+120). Given the variable duration structure of the learning modules, the nominal expected time of completion (of three years) could be shorter or longer, depending on the individual abilities of a student. Correspondingly, the total tuition cost will also be higher or lower based on the actual time spent on the campus.
Defense Cooperation
We are requesting the Department of Defense of India to provide personnel, facilities, and procedures that they normally provide for Sainik Schools. This cooperation is expected to be approved and formalized within the next few months.
