NIT Amended Act Declares All 5 Institutions, Including The One In Pune, As Autonomous
Students of the Indian Institute of Science Education and
Research (IISER) will now get formal degree certificates. The first batch of the
integrated five-year BS-MS dual degree programme passed out this year, but with
provisional degree certificates in hand.
On Friday, the Lok Sabha passed the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Amendment
Act, 2010, to include all five IISERs, including the one in Pune, under its ambit
as an autonomous institution of national importance. The first batch graduates feared
that provisional certificates would not be recognised by universities abroad, but
now they are relieved. The decision was pending in Parliament for the past two years.
This year, 42 students from IISER Pune and 38 from IISER Kolkata graduated in the
integrated five-year master’s programme with a BS-MS dual degree in Biology, Chemistry,
Mathematics and Physics. The students had enrolled in 2006.Besides Kolkata and Pune,
three more IISERs at Mohali, Thiruvananthapuram and Bhopal are awaiting Parliament
nod.
Since IISERs are national institutes like the IITs, Parliament first needs to pass
an act to enable them to award degrees to students. In case of state universities,
the state assembly has to pass an act.
Now, we can formally give degrees to students. Since April 2010,t I
0he decision was being delayed for various reasons. But, this year we put pressure
on the Union Ministry of human resource and development to get the nod from Parliament,
since the first batch had already passed out and the students were being given provisional
certificates. Now, they can be assured of their degree, said K N Ganesh, director,
IISER, Pune.
Getting the nod from the Lok Sabha was most important. Now the bill is likely to
sail through Rajya Sabha and after final consent from the President of India, the
act will come into being.
Ganesh said, Each IISER will now be autonomous and each one of them will
have the liberty to design its course and curriculum. Except for few administrative
rules, for instance, transfer of a student from one IISER to another, all academic
rules will be framed by the respective IISER. He said that unlike the Indian Institute
of Technology Act, that does not allow any other institution to come under its ambit,
the NIT Act permits includion of new institutions. The other option for IISER was
to go in for a deemed university status under the University Grants Commission (UGC).However,
we did not want to go under the UGC as we would have had to follow their rules,
Ganesh said.
Courtesy: Times of India
