KOCHI: Governor P. Sathasivam on Monday wondered why Indian universities have not been ranked among the finest in the world despite their having excellent faculty as well as brilliant aspiring students like their counterparts elsewhere.
Inaugurating the ‘Prathibha Sangamam’ organized by the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) to honour meritorious students and faculty at the varsity and launching the ‘Enrich’ programme, technology business incubator and adjunct faculty scheme there, the Governor said that the occasion would turn out to be a brave new dawn for the institution.
The technology business incubator (TBI), which envisages promoting student entrepreneurs in the area of communication technologies, will be set up and managed by the Centre for Innovation Technology Transfer and Industrial Collaboration of the university.
The TBI will help to form university-connected start-up companies and promote small enterprising business ventures and will be the nodal centre for channelling research efforts of affiliated institutions.
The Enrich programme is to recognize research-intensive departments at the university and to encourage the academics and research students for high research output.
“Under the scheme, the faculty that brings projects worth more than a crore would be recognized. Those students who get best paper award in science congress would be felicitated,” the Governor noted.
Two awards, namely Best Researcher Award and Best Faculty Award, will be given to select the faculty under the scheme from the next academic year.
The faculty taking up research projects from national agencies will be recognized. For projects up to Rs 1 crore, a grant of 10 percent will be provided by the university to meet any expenditure relating to the project.
“For research students who bring acclaim to the university in the form of awards, a contingency amount of Rs 10,000 will be given by the university for research expenses, including travel. Five fellowships will be instituted for women researchers to participate in international seminars in Asian countries,” Mr Sathasivam, who is the Chancellor of the varsity, said.
The Governor distributed merit certificates to students who performed well in the university exams during 2014-15 and honoured eminent faculty on the occasion.
Vice-Chancellor Dr J. Letha and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Dr Poulose Jacob were also present at the function.
