KOZHIKODE: A total of 1,394 students received their degrees during the 13th convocation of National Institute of Technology-Calicut (NIT-C). This included, 46 PhD, 338 M.Tech, 7 M.Plan, 50 MSc, 32 MCA, 24 MBA, 30 B.Arch and 867 B.Tech degrees. The chairperson, Board of Governors of NIT Calicut, Aruna Jayanthi (CEO- Capgemini India Pvt. Ltd.) declared the convocation ceremony. The director, Dr Sivaji Chakravorti presented the Annual Report. The convocation address was delivered by the chief guest, Padma Bhushan Faqir Chand Kohli, known as Father of Indian software industry.
In his address Mr Kohli said that the country is not producing enough Masters and PhDs it needs to meet the faculty needs, research, design and innovation. As the education system for preparing students for PhDs starts at undergraduate level, excellence of education at undergraduate level is very important. For improving the situation, there is a need to provide autonomy in governance, financial independence, faculty, advanced curriculum and facilities like libraries and world-class labs. Mr Kohli stressed on the importance of continuing education in engineering and technology.
He said it was the responsibility of the industry to support the need of their engineers to continue education in collaboration with educational institutions and professional bodies. The director highlighted the important developments in the last year, which included the steady rise in the research activities funded by the external agencies like the Department of Science and Technology and also industries, funding for faculty of the School of Nano Science and Technology. The other developments include securing fellowships from the Visvesvaraya Ph.D scheme of Ministry of Information Technology, and sanctioning of Intellectual Property Rights Cell.
