Dilip Thakore interviewed Dr. Achyuta Samanta, the visionary founder- director of KIIT University and the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) on the KISS campus in Bhubaneswar. Excerpts: To have promoted and established KIIT as one of India’s top 20 private universities within 15 years is a commendable and extraordinary achievement. What were the aims and objectives behind the promotion and development of the Kalinga Industrial Institute in 1997? My father who worked in a steel plant was killed in a train accident when I was only four years old. Therefore together with my two brothers and four sisters, I experienced a very deprived and difficult childhood in Kalarabank, a remote village in Cuttack district, often having to subsist on one square meal in two days. However throughout these difficult childhood years, I steadfastly continued my studies in the village government school and won a scholarship to college. In college and university I studied very hard in a disciplined manner to eventually qualify for a Masters degree in chemistry. With my education I was able to get work as a private tutor and later as a chemistry lecturer in a college. In short, I learned the value of education the hard way and it became my purpose and mission in life to pass on the gift of education to all — especially the poorest of the poor — to enable them to lift themselves out of poverty as I did. How satisfied are you that these aims and objectives have been achieved? I’m satisfied that we have built a strong platform for education and skills development, and have acquired valuable experience in institutional management. We have also built a large bank of goodwill which we can encash, and age is on my side. I am confident that I will be able to expand our operations and do much more in the cause of education and poverty eradication. Looking back over the past 20 years, what would you say are the factors behind the success of KIIT University? I believe it was focused dedication to clearly defined goals, honest intention and the good interpersonal skills of our people. Moreover our energies were focused entirely on developing KIIT University and KISS, and not diffused across a large number of projects. Besides we have a frugal institutional culture which enables us to plough all the profits of KIIT University into expansion and development of KIIT and KISS. KIIT is described as a self-financing university. However, official policy and the Supreme Court have from time to time criticised “commercialisation of education”. What’s your comment? The tuition fees that we charge are allowed by the Fees Committees established by state governments and headed by retired high court judges. Moreover while the Central and state government colleges spend Rs.15-20 lakh per engineering and medical student in government colleges, we charge students half as much. Indeed private institutions of higher education in India charge the lowest fees worldwide for professional education programmes. What was the motivation behind promotion of…
