The Union Minister of Human Resource Development Mrs. Smriti Zubin Irani held a meeting with the Directors/Chairpersons of IISc/IISERs, in New Delhi today.
The meeting was an interactive session to understand the goals and challenges faced by IISc/IISERs including infrastructure, capacity building, research, international co-operation, patents, IPRs and publications in peer reviewed journals. Addressing the meeting, the minister said it is very important to develop a national system of rankings which will work as a national benchmark for various science education and research institutions to achieve. This will further help us to compete at an international level, and we must give special attention to South-South collaboration, she added. To increase international presence on campus, IISERs need more publicity and creation of brand value.
The Minister also emphasized the need to enhance the research quotient and shared her views about Rashtriya Avishakar Abhiyaan. She observed that IISc and IISERs need to have a robust interface with research & development of the industry. The Minister further added that these institutes must promote international co-operation in critical areas like solar energy and plant genome/bio technology. She suggested some areas of research with social impact such as pollution and impact on health, climate change and productivity. There should be scientific research to promote medical facilities for the common man. Mrs Irani suggested that IISERs could form a consortia approach for such research initiatives.
To achieve their targeted goals, the institutes must follow a system of performance audit. The Minister highlighted the importance of Know Your College (KYC) drive which places critical information on the website and enables stakeholders like students and parents to make informed choices.
As IISERs are new institutions they should focus on alumni engagement. The Minister said that for professionalizing the administrative set up of the institutions, management capacity programs conducted by IIMs could be considered.
The Minister also suggested that like IITs, IISERs should be involved in mentoring and anchoring TEQIP (Technical Education Quality Improvement Program) to create an eco-system for improving the quality of science and engineering education in the country.
Secretary (HE), Shri Ashok Thakur and Ms. Amita Sharma, Addl. Secretary (TE) were also present in the meeting as also Chairman IISER, Thiruvananthapuram.
The Institutions which were present at the meeting include IISc, Bangalore, IISER, Kolkata, IISER, Pune, IISER, Mohali, IISER, Bhopal, IISER, Thiruvananthapuram.
Source: Press Information Bureau
