A high powered joint meeting on crucial merger of the Khallikote University with the Berhampur University was held at the Bhanja Bihar campus here on Wednesday. A number of senior officers and academic functionaries of both the universities attended.

The officials who attended on behalf of Berhampur University include Vice-Chancellor Prof Gobind J Chakrapani, University Registrar Pradip Kumar Mishra, Controller of Examinations Dr Surendra Kumar Sethi, Deputy Registrar Dr Babuji Samal,among others, while prominent among those who represented the Khallikote University include Vice Chancellor Prof Prafulla Kumar Mohanty, Registrar Dillip Kumar Bala; PG Council Chairman Prof Jogeswar Panigrahi, Comptroller of Finance Meenati Sahu and Heads of all PG Departments.

According to information available, the meeting discussed threadbare the functionality of different PG Departments-some new and some are overlapping during post-merger period, availability infrastructure including space to accommodate the departments to be merged in the existing space structure of the Berhampur University, besides holding of classes and conduct of examinations.

 Mention may be made that only a year after being accorded university status, the Khallikote University, South Odisha’s higher education status symbol, is back to square one. It had got unitary varsity status only in February last year, but will now be amalgamated with the Berhampur University. As per a notification issued by the Higher Education Department, the Khallikote University will cease to exist after September 30.Notably, the PG Department of Bio Science and Bio Informatics, Natural Resources Management and Geo Informatics; Library and Information Science; Travel and Tourism Management; Business Economics; Communication and Media Technology will function in the Berhampur University from October 1 this year. The meeting focused its deliberations starting from records management, conduct of classes, holding examinations to overall management of these disciplines.

The Berhampur University reportedly has identified Central Instrumentation Center building, IR&PM building, MBA building, Language Science Building; and Life Sciences Buildings to accommodate the newly merged six PG departments, university sources said. These courses will continue up to the academic year 2021-22, sources said.