The University of Madras will be entering into a memorandum of understanding with several institutions of higher learning in the city, including Anna University and IIT-Madras, for sharing resources and facilities, its vice-chancellor G. Thiruvasagam said here on Thursday.
“Even for research scholars there can be co-guides from their neighbouring universities, since research work sometimes involve an inter-disciplinary approach and require expertise from other universities,” he said.
He was delivering the presidential address at the inauguration of the INSPIRE (Innovation in Science for pursuit of Inspired Research) internship Camp 2012, organised by the University of Madras.
Mr. Thiruvasagam underscored the fact that the interest towards pure sciences has come down significantly in the recent years. “At the financial committee meeting, I was questioned on the reasons for the decrease in revenue from the University. I responded saying that the confidence in sending students to pure science courses has come down, since the employment opportunities are lesser. Also, the reduction in eligibility requirements for engineering courses have indirectly affected the intake in pure sciences. There are colleges in rural areas that have good infrastructure and facility, but are running with classroom strength in single digits,” he said.
At this juncture, the programmes such as INSPIRE Internship-2011 are meant to attracted talented students to science at an early stage. Sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, the INSPIRE camp has received 200 applications. As many as 150 students were selected from 35 schools, of which 22 are government schools.
Students who scored above 90 per cent were selected for the programme.
Mr. Thiruvasagam also announced that the status of Ph.D research scholars would be updated regularly on the University website, for research scholars to keep track of their thesis.
