One of the most visible results of a student's doctoral studies is the PhD thesis and to ensure quality of research, the University of Pune (UoP) has set up a special Research Advisory Committee (RAC) to administer the process
Two separate committees have formed for pure sciences and social sciences wherein eminent national scientists have been appointed as the members of these recently formed RACs’.
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“The RACs’ will monitor the quality of research at the university. All research projects undertaken on UoP’s campus have to be presented to the RAC’s,” said UoP Vice-Chancellor Dr W N Gade yesterday.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a programme arranged by varsity’s Chemistry department. The department has received Rs 4.5 crore as grant from central government’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the scheme Fund for Improvement of S & T infrastructure (FIST) in universities and higher education institutes.
Presently, the RACs’ would restrict their focus on UoP’s campus only and in the next phase all affiliated colleges would be covered by the RACs.
Expecting funds
Meanwhile, speaking about increase in flow of funds to promote research work on the campus by various national agencies as well as government schemes, Gade said, “Under the ongoing 12th five year plan, the varsity can expect up to Rs 350 to 400 crores of funds under the recently launched Rashtriya Uccha Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).u00a0For this the state government has to form a higher education council, after which the centre can send the funds through the state government. At the national level Rs 22,500 crore funds have been reserved for RUSA and till now no university has received funds under this scheme.”u00a0
Vacant PhD seats
When asked how the varsity will promote research with over 3,000unfilled PhD seats, which became vacant since no one applied for the PhD entrance exam, Gade said, “I think rather focusing on how many students registered, what matters is the quality of research.”
Rs 4.5 cr
Amount of grant the Chemistry department received from the Centreu00a0
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