Chennai: Good news for research scholars at IIT-M! Indian Institute of Management – Madras will now allow its research scholars to practice research on more than one field covering more than one subject.
The concept of interdisciplinary research is the latest proposal by the leading institution to attract students to research. IIT-M has been initiating various proposals as an effort to be acknowledged as a global institution and a research one at that. The institute is among the few to find a place among the top 500 institutions. However, no Indian institution has made it to the top 200 list.
Dean of Academic Research S K Das, has said, that they have mutual faculty interested in inter-disciplinary research from 16 departments in the institute to guide research scholars. He mentioned that they can be attached to one of the departments for administrative purpose, but can work with more than one. Besides, he added, that the idea was a hit, with the institute receiving 500 applications so far for the newly proposed programme.
According to academics, this type of interdisciplinary research is rare in India because only universities with a all-inclusive character can afford to take it up, whereas Indian policy has secluded the capability of universities into technical, medical and humanities. In India, there are only a very few model universities in this regard.
Also, the academics has mentioned, that some research and development labs of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have been able to set up interdisciplinary research centres, but not educational institutions. Indian Institute of Science - Bangalore is the only institution that has been able to go beyond this obstruction.
Moreover, the plan of interdisciplinary research follows other proposals by IIT-M in order to enhance research, and to draw the best minds to the institute. This year, IIT-M has also attempted to draw the best of undergraduates from self-financing private institutions by offering them the flexibility to join research courses directly after PhD without pursuing a master’s degree. The new schemes introduced have increased PhD and MS research applications by 15% to 20% from last year, with the number going upto 10,700 in 2013.
