IISERs plan own entrance test from 2010

Bhopal, Oct 10: All five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research set up by the Human Resources Development Ministry plan to conduct its own admission test from 2010.

At present, candidates who have passed 12th standard examination or its equivalent and those qualified in the IIT-JEE Regular and extended merit list and Kishore Vaigyaik Protsahan Yojana are given admission in five year integrated Master of Science programme, HRD sources said on Friday, Oct 10. The fourth IISER at Bhopal, the foundation stone of which was laid by HRD Minister Arjun Singh on Wednesday, was started this year with undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

It would start PhD programme from 2009 in different areas, particularly physical sciences, chemical sciences, biological sciences, mathematics and computer sciences, earth and environmental sciences and humanities and social sciences, the sources said. The existing IISERs are located at Pune, Kolkata and Mohali, while the fifth one will come up at Thiruvananthapuram this year.

Each of these IISERs is an autonomous institution awarding its own degrees.

''The prime focus of IISER is to integrate science education and research with a motive of attracting bright students and world class faculty and to provide a platform to integrate quality education with research in the field of basic and natural sciences'', HRD sources said.

At Bhopal, the country's second School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), after Delhi, has been started this year with bachelor course in planning and architecture.

It will also conduct post graduate courses in Planning with specialisation in regional planning, transport planning, environment planning, housing, infrastructure planning and management, urban management, architectural conservation, industrial design and landscape architecture.

Other specialised management programmes like disaster management, environmental management and real estate management may also be introduced at a later stage with total student strength of 835 as compared to 105 at present.

The foundation stone of SPA-Bhopal was also laid by Mr Arjun Singh on Wednesday.

Indore, a prominent town in western Madhya Pradesh, has the unique distinction of having both Indian Institute of Management and Indian Institute of Technology.

UNI