‘Embed research institutes into varsity campuses’
PRISCILLA JEBARAJ
If the country’s top research institutes are embedded into university campuses, it will give students a direct experience of cutting-edge research from a very early stage, according to Nobel Prize winner Venkatraman Ramakrishnan.
Dr. Ramakrishnan felt that top class research in India was limited to a few good institutes; a situation that should change.
“I have always felt that for research to improve, students need to be exposed to the very best research at an early stage.
One change over the last several decades is that individual universities have lost ground to large research institutes.
It would be a good idea to embed research institutes inside university campuses, and perhaps also integrate research more into universities,” he said.
Asked whether the expansion of the IIT network would help Indian scientists make a global mark, he said it was as important to set up more institutes for the basic sciences, modelled on the Indian Institute of Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the National Centre for Biological Sciences, preferably located within university campuses.
He also recalled his visits to several universities, and his impression that they were under-funded in comparison to central research institutes.
Funding issues
“I think if one has to constantly worry about funding and facilities, it is hard to be innovative,” he said, recommending that the government and the Indian scientific community take steps to improve funding for universities.
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