IISER set for tie-up with UK varsity network
Times of India: Union minister for human resource development (HRD) Kapil Sibal’s three-day official tour to the United Kingdom (UK), starting Wednesday, is all set to bring a tangible benefit to the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune.
The city-based institute will be signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Southeast-India Partnership Network, UK, a consortium of British varsities led by the University of Surrey, as part of Sibal’s tour engagement.
The MoU will primarily focus on exchange programmes during the summer and autumn of 2010, and forms one of the outcomes of the joint declaration signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his UK counter part Gordon Brown during the annual Indo-UK summit in New Delhi in January 2008.
Speaking to TOI, IISER’s registrar V S Rao confirmed that the institute’s director K N Ganesh has joined the delegation of senior academicians and the ministry officials, which left for UK along with Sibal on Tuesday. Rao, however, said that the finer details of the MoU would be made public only after the institute director returns to the city.
The IISER, Pune was one of the first two autonomous degree-awarding residential institutes which were set up by the HRD ministry in August 2006, with an initial funding of Rs 500 crore for dedicated research-based studies in pure sciences.
It offers a five-year integrated masters programme (MS) and Ph.D studies for students drawn from the IIT joint entrance exam merit list as well as the department of science and technology’s ‘Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana’. The ministry has since commissioned IISERs at Bhopal, Mohali and Thiruvananthapuram apart from Kolkata, which was set up along with Pune.
Apart from IISER, Pune, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar will also sign an MoU with the University of Glasgow for furthering teachers’ training activity.
Both, IISER, Pune and IIT, Ropar were selected for these partnership programmes as part of the initiatives agreed in the Indo-UK joint declaration. India had sought input on faculty and curriculum development and other forms of intellectual and logistical input.
“Ganesh, along with a couple of senior IISER professors, had earlier visited several universities and consortia in the UK to firm up the MoU details,” Rao said.
More articles by The Desk
- Website to promote child rights launched - March 19th, 2010
- City nightlife is entangled in many restrictions - March 19th, 2010
- Ford India launches 'Figo' in the city - March 19th, 2010
- Opus - one of Pune’s live-band restaurants, is closing down - March 19th, 2010
- Pune is a premier business hub, finds study by UKBIC - March 19th, 2010
