Newer IISERs on the cards to strengthen scientific research at UG level

“But that is like a drop in the ocean and we need to have a greater number of students doing research. There are proposals to establish new IISERs in the future; work on identifying the locations are currently going on,” Dr Arvind Natu, chairman, Board of Governors (BoG) of IISER Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram, told The Indian Express.

Realising the lack of research component at undergraduate level, physicists Prof VG Bhide and Dr Govind Swarup envisioned setting up of institutions like IISERs in early 2000. It was later formally conceptualised by Bharat Ratna CNR Rao. In 2006, the first two institutes were set up in Pune and Kolkata headed by Dr KN Ganesh and Prof Sushanta Dattagupta, respectively. Last week, IISER Pune celebrated its 16th foundation day.

The courses offered here cover Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Earth Sciences and Humanities. The flagship course remains the five-year BS-MS course for students completing Class XII along with integrated, international PhD and regular PhD programmes.

At present, all the seven IISERs including those at Bhopal, Berhampur, Mohali, Thiruvananthapuram and Tirupati are among the top-ranking research institutions in the country.

“In addition to the proposed IISERs, there are newer courses at Master’s degree level, which have either already started or are being finalised so that more students can join IISER at various levels of their academics,” added Natu.

Some of the recent courses include data science, space physics, engineering sciences, among others.

According to Natu, the state governments will have a major role to play in the establishment of new IISER campuses. The establishment of a single institute can incur a cost of about Rs 1,000 crore.