SHAlINI SAKSENAtalks to Vice-Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,Dr P Venkat Rangan how the latest rules on NEET affect private universities, the international faculty and the reverse brain drain on their campus
What are some of the popular courses on offerIJ
There are over 200 undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes in Engineering, Business, Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Journalism, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Arts & Sciences, Humanities, Health Sciences, Education, Microbiology, Hospital Management, Visual Media Studies, Mass Communication, Social Work, Nanosciences and Ayurveda. Agriculture and law are perhaps the only disciplines where we do not have any programmes. Plans are afoot to start programmes in these areas as well.
Tell us how reverse brain drain is happening at the universityIJ
More than 200 faculty from premier universities and organisations all over the world have joined Amrita. International faculty at the university account for 15 per cent of the total faculty strength. We have attracted faculty with terminal degrees or work experience from Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, Purdue, Clarkson, UClA, Cornell, University of California, San Diego, State University of New York, Iowa State University, Simon Fraser University in Canada, INSEAD (France), National University of Singapore, University of Berne (Switzerland) among others.
Do new NEET rules — reservation of seats — affect youIJ
We are fully compliant with the Government rules and regulations in this regard. As per the Order/Judgement of the Supreme Court all Deemed Universities of the country conducting UG Medical and Dental Courses are required to contribute all seats to All India Quota Online Common Counselling to be conducted by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS)/Medical Counselling Committee/Ministry of Health & Family Welfare through MCC website. Selection and counselling for admissions of General and NRI candidates are done only from DGHS. Candidates are advised to check the MCC website for latest notifications.
Tell us about your faculty.
We have more than 1,600 faculty. As mentioned earlier, more than 15% of them have international experience. In addition to this, because of our extensive academic and research collaboration with international universities, we have more than 100 adjunct faculty, who actively participate in our academic and research programmes. There is also a significant number of faculty with exposure in top national research laboratories, like BARC and DRDO. We are privileged to have a Nobel laureate on our faculty as well — Dr leland H Hartwell.
Do you offer scholarshipsIJ
Yes. Almost 20 per cent of our students are getting scholarships and freeships. It is primarily based on merit and economic need.
What’s the teaching methodologyIJ
Some of the unique features of our teaching methodology include: Choice-based credit system with electives in cutting-edge areas. Our curricular has innovations like open electives, project-based courses, live-in-labs experiential learning programme and semester-abroad programme.
Do you have International students — which countriesIJ
On an average, we have close to 400 students per year. This included exchange students from various partner international universities. We have students from the US, Europe, Japan, Australia and Singapore to name a few.
What are the facilities for the studentsIJ
Excellent infrastructure, well-equipped libraries, learning centres and state-of-the-art teaching and research laboratories in all campuses, departments and Centres of Excellence. If you take engineering, we have more than 250 advanced laboratories like software-defined radio, remote sensing, smart grid, wireless technologies, cyber security, material science, aero design, propulsion, environmental engineering, data analytics, VlSI Design, biomedical engineering, embedded systems, renewable energy, automotive research, robotics and automation, optics and biosensors. Sophisticated equipment available in these labs includes sub-sonic wind tunnel, Kamov-35 Helicopter and MIG-23 fighter aircraft. In addition to these for student life, in all campuses, facilities for sports and games as also specialised facilities like Olympic-standard swimming pool, synthetic tennis court and state-of-the art gymnasium are available for the benefit of the students.
Tell us about the university — when was it set up and whyIJ
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham was set up in 2003. The concept of education, stress on research and commitment to installing universal values have come together to shape it into an institute where the latest advancements and discoveries combine with compassion and service-mindedness. The vision is to develop the expansive-mindedness to embrace both scientific knowledge and spiritual wisdom. We don’t see these two streams flowing in opposite directions but how they complement each other.
What is the university’s USPIJ
To provide education for life in addition to education for living. This is realised in all dimensions of the university — be it academics, research or student life. There is a strong thrust on compassion-driven research for societal development.
We have a programme — live in labs, in which our students and faculty, in conjunction with students and faculty from international universities spend two weeks to six months in villages in India in order to understand current challenges and, subsequently, develop sustainable solutions.
This immersive experiential programme not only advances international collaboration and participatory learning but also promotes an environment of synergy between science, engineering and human values.
International universities that have signed up for this programme include Columbia University, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, University of New Mexico in the US, Technical University of Munich (Germany), TU Delft (The Netherlands), and EPFl lausanne (Switzerland).
Some of the innovative solutions for these villages conceptualised by our students include rural electrification via solar power, micro-electric hydroelectric systems for water distribution, bio-filters for water purification and lemongrass oil-distillation system using solar energy.