The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) here has started functioning from its Vithura campus.
IISER, which began functioning in 2008 from a transit campus at the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, will start classes for almost half its students on the new campus from this academic year.
The admission process began on Friday, and 73 girls and 103 boys gained admission to the five-year Integrated BS-MS Programme.
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An orientation program saw V. Ramakrishnan, Director, and other officials explain the academic structure, activities, and amenities to the new students and their parents.
305 students
The second year students have already shifted to the campus, taking the total number of students put up on the residential campus to 305.
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Facilities such as a central dining hall with a modern mechanised kitchen designed to serve over a 1,000 meals at a time, separate residence halls for boys and girls with basic facilities and Wi-Fi, a round the clock health centre with fully equipped ambulance, a multipurpose departmental store run by the employees’ cooperative society, digital library, recreational and sports facilities, and computer rooms are available to the students.
A full-fledged indoor stadium is expected to be ready this academic semester.
Two academic buildings, the chemical sciences block and the central instrumentation facility, are ready. The chemical sciences block houses four state-of-the-art classrooms, laboratories for teaching biology, chemistry and physics, office space for academic and administrative use and over 20 research and instrumentation labs.
Sophisticated equipment are being installed in the central instrumentation facility. Work on three more academic blocks is on, and together these are expected to provide an integrated space for fundamental research.
Staff quarters and a guest house are available for the members of the faculty. Roads, power and water supply, and data network are also ready.
Most of the remaining teaching activities and research laboratories will shift to the campus before the next academic year gets under way.
40 km from city
The institute currently has over 800 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate PhD programmes. The new campus has come up on 200 acres of land against the backdrop of the Western Ghats in Marthumala ward of Vithura village, 40 km from the city. Despite the challenges posed by location and terrain, the first set of buildings and essential services were inaugurated in January this year.