Research, teaching helped improve NIT-C ranking, says director

1,568 graduands receive degrees at convocation

With flying colours: Graduands of NIT-C during the convocation ceremony held on the campus in Kozhikode on Saturday.

A total of 1,568 graduands received their degrees at the 15th convocation of the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NIT-C) here on Saturday. They include 910 B.Tech, 47 B.Arch, 359 M.Tech, 10 M.Plan, 46 MCA, 44 MBA, 51 M.Sc., and 101 Ph.D graduates.

NIT-C Director Sivaji Chakravorti, who declared the convocation open and presented the annual report, said a concerted effort in research and good teaching had helped the institute improve its ranking to 28th position from 50th in NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. “Strong support that we received from the government, the Board of Governors, students, research scholars, faculty, staff, officers and the alumni and also from our peers and well-wishers made it possible,” he said.

He said the aim of the institute was to find a place in global ranking in the years to come. For that, research and teaching should go hand in hand. The output of quality research should be constantly used as an input to the teaching process so that the student was challenged in the process of learning, said Dr. Chakravorti.

As a proponent of self-employment, he said NIT-C had enabled and facilitated many success stories in entrepreneurship that included the nurturing of more than 60 start-ups through the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) in the last 15 years. “Many members of our faculty and staff have contributed directly or indirectly in mentoring the start-ups. Some of the companies have flourished to become multi-million enterprises.”

He said the number of degree programmes at the graduate and postgraduate levels at NIT-C had become 41 after the commencement of the new B. Tech programme in Materials Science and Engineering. There was an increase in student intake after new regulations introduced by the Centre. It had cumulatively contributed to an all-time increase in the undergraduate admission, which has gone to the level of more than 1,200, the highest among NITs. Annually, Ph.D fellowships to the tune of 100 are offered by the institute apart from UGC, CSIR and AICTE fellowships, said Dr. Chakravorti.

Last year, he said, the NIT-C had received sanction of about ₹6 crore for sponsored research projects apart from consultancy.