JOIN USThe Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has chalked out several programmes to break into the top 50 rankings of world universities, according to its director Dr Anurag Kumar.
In the annual Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), the IISc has been ranked between 301 and 400. In individual fields like mathematics, however, it has been ranked better, between 151 and 200.
The IISc has now formed a committee to look into international ranking. The institute’s senate had discussed the matter earlier, Kumar added.
He spoke about various steps to improve the IISc’s status in the world. Increasing connection with well-placed and successful alumni, attracting international faculty and students and rapid upscaling of infrastructure are some of these steps.
Alumni affairs unit
As a means to better connect with the alumni, the IISc has established a new alumni affairs unit and already hired two development officers. A new portal for alumni engagement has also been created, Kumar announced.
The IISc director maintained that funding constraints in research have stopped India from achieving greatness in the field of science. While research spending in the US is three per cent of the GDP and about two per cent in China, it’s just one per cent in India, he pointed out.
Dr Kumar gave examples of Caltech (California Institute of Technology) and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the US, which have achieved laurels in terms of Nobel prizes and field medals. If CalTech has produced 33 Nobel prize winners, the MIT boasts of a whopping 81 awardees.