Higher education on the move in Mysore

Last month, I spent a couple of days visiting research institutes in Mysore. I visited two organisations undergoing a process of great change, which is perhaps indicative of some of the trends in Indian Higher Education today. Universities in India are becoming much more significant players in research – contributing 39% of research publications (up from 15% in 2006).

The first place I visited was the JSS Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE), housing several colleges under the umbrella of the JSS Mahaveedyapeetha (JSS-M). It was a whistle stop tour which included calls on the Director (Technical), Joint Director, Principal, Coordinator for the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) and Chief Executive of the S&T Entrepreneur’s Park. I have rarely been welcomed so warmly!

JSS-M encompasses schools, technical colleges, science colleges, a medical university, polytechnics, schools, hospitals and a polytechnic for disabled students – over 300 insitutes in total!* It grew out of the 1000 year old Suttur Math, currently headed by His Holiness Sri Sri Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji, who I was lucky enough to meet. So it has a long history! However, the group only started establishing formal education institutes in the 1940s, so has experienced phenomenal growth since then.

That growth has principally been in the provision of much needed education, with faculty also pursuing some research. More recently, however, JSS Medical College has been granted university status and SJCE is considering doing the same. This change means no grant in aid from Government, but would give the institution significantly more autonomy over fees and the number of students they’ll be given by the Government (40% instead of 95% of their intake). It will also allow them to apply for the larger research grants from research funders such as DST.

I saw this change as part of a wider ongoing agenda of uplifting SJCE’s research focus. The college hosts several large laboratories, established over the last decade and sponsored by industry. Through these, companies like Bosch or Schneider Electric pose the faculty and students yearly challenges to address with their research. And I was shown the college’s incubation centre. Established in 2000 and currently housing several impressive ICT start ups, they have plans to build something similar in biotech soon. SJCE is very interested in exploring partnerships with UK universities and would be particularly interested to talk about running joint degrees, programmes for visiting faculty and forging links with the entrepreneurs based in their incubation centre. The latter could be on entrepreneurship training or in finding innovation partners.

I also visited the University of Mysore, one of the oldest in India. Set out in a traditional format, with an old palace for their admin block, it covers teaching and research in most disciplines, with particular strengths in physics, chemistry and biological sciences (including genetics and nutrition). I was hosted by Dr Asna Urooj from the Department of Food and Nutrition (more on this soon), because I was interested in Mysore’s potential as a food research cluster. Professor K. S. Rangappa , the vice Chancellor, kindly gave me an overview of the university when I arrived.

The impression I had was of another institution with a proud history in teaching, now significantly increasing its investment in research. This was illustrated by my visit to the new building funded out of a £10m grant from the Government of India to establish a Centre of Excellence in Biodiversity, Bioprospecting and Sustainable Development. Shown around briefly, I found some seriously cutting edge equipment for physical and biological sciences. In fact, the Centre’s manager proudly told me that their new x-ray diffractometer was the first of its kind in India.**

This equipment was all new, indeed so new I think Dr Asna was even more interested than me to see what was now available for the Faculty of Mysore to use! Historically, Dr Asna explained that the kind of equipment on offer in Mysore used only to be found in a few IITs or the IISc. This last fact, I suspect, is perhaps the best indicator I saw of the drive towards more investment in research across many Indian universities.

More about TEQIP.

* They have an impressive geographical range too, from an International School in Ooty, up in the beautiful Nilgiris, to an engineering campus in Mauritius.

** It was a Bruker Microfocus X8 Protreum II integrated with Platinum135 detector and 4-circle kappa goniometer if you’re interested!