KHARAGPUR: With a director finally at its
helm, IIT-Kharagpur is all set to adopt
global academic practices. The premier
institute plans to have international
semesters on the lines of summer and
winter semesters at top foreign universities.
The programme will be held during the
summer or winter breaks and won't clash
with IIT-Kharagpur's academic calendar,
director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti said.
BTech and MTech students may earn credit
points from such programmes conducted in
collaboration with foreign institutes. The
credits will be added to the students' final
scores when they pass out.
The institute has already signed several
MoUs with varsities in Japan, Germany,
Canada, Russia, Taiwan and Columbia to
facilitate collaborative programmes,
revealed Chakrabarti's predecessor Shankar
Kumar Som. Holding summer semesters is
integral to the grand plan that is expected to
fetch handsome funds. Many corporate
heavyweights are interested in sponsoring
the programme.
"We may be in a position to start the
international semester programme from
next summer ," said a faculty member. The
director prefers to keep the details under
wraps. "I can't divulge the plan before I
share it with the faculty members and get it
through," Chakrabarti said.
Chakrabarti, a teacher of computer science,
joined office on Saturday after a year-long
controversy over his appointment. The new
director, however, isn't shifting his focus
from the medical education programme
under consideration.
"We hope to start the MBBS course from the
2016-17 session. We have to get affiliation
from the Medical Council of India,"
Chakrabarti said. The proposal is awaiting
Cabinet nod, former director Som revealed.
IIT-Kgp is in talks with Johns Hopkins
Hospital in the US, Imperial College in
London and with Tata Cancer Research
Centre in Kolkata for joint projects.
"My aim is to groom the medical college
into an ideal research and innovation-based
institute. The intake of doctoral students
will gradually go up to 30% from 10% at
the moment," the director said.
The effort will also allow IIT graduates to
take up medical engineering.
At the 59th convocation on Saturday, Utsav
Banerjee got the President's gold medal and
Mayank Shrivastav the Prime Minister's
gold medal.
0 comments:
Post a Comment