Keeping track of progress on Vedanta University (proposed near Puri, Orissa, India)

Today in Sambada the vice chancellor of Sambalpur University criticizes Vedanta's aspiration to have 100,000 students and says that such a large body of students will lead to lower quality and make it more like a trade school. (IN ORIYA)

That is of course a possibility, but if Vedanta University sticks to its goal of having the quality of Harvard/Stanford/Oxford/Cambridge then just aiming for 100,000 students will not make it a trade school.

As an example consider the following large universities in the US:

Arizona State University, Main Campus	51,612
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	51,175
The Ohio State University	50,504
University of Texas, Austin	49,696
University of Florida	49,693
Michigan State University	45,166
Texas A&M University, College Station	44,910
University of Illinois, Urbana	41,862
University of Wisconsin, Madison	41,447
Pennsylvania State University, University Park	40,709

All of the above are quite good universities and most are better
than any existing university or other institutions (such as IITs or IISc) in Asia. Most of them have nobel prize winners. Among them the University of Texas at Austin which has 50,000 students is ranked 15th best university in the world.

If Vedanta can be like any of the above university then that would be great for Orissa and India. Finally, I do not think Vedanta is planning to have 100,000 students immediately or even in 5 years. Its goal is to reach its maximum size in 2025. I think by that time a couple of the above universities, especially Arizona State University (the university I work at) will have 100,000 students.