GSAA (PG) Manifesto Review

The Institute General Body Meets (GBMs) are conducted twice every year with the intent to provide all students a convenient mechanism to provide feedback and addressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dressme.co.nz/ball-dressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dresses.html”>dressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dress concern to the student representatives responsible for various amenities on campus.

The PG Academic Affairs 2015-16 GBM is scheduled from 9:00 PM on 29th October in LT (PCSA).

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Events in red are those that haven’t been started or there has been no satisfactory development in this regard.
Events in orange are those that have been initiated but not completed, or there have been some developments in this regard.
Events in green are those that have been completed as described in the manifesto, or have seen satisfactory developments.

KEY INITIATIVES
• Propose to increase flexibility of qualifier rules implementation for research scholars in departments wherever possible.
• Push to enhance and provide full conferences grant and speed up the reimbursement process of conference funds.
• Propose to float Ph.D. topic and brief description of projects before admissions of PhD students for those departments where it is possible.
• Propose a 24×7 snack vending machine in academic area to facilitate late night working students in coordination with GSHA.
  

• Push for a central portal to book lab’s slot to enhance access of inter department lab equipments.
• Propose an Institute Honour Code to restrain malpractice and plagiarism by embracing student’s views through open house sessions.
  

• Propose a portal to track the status of thesis report after thesis submission.
• Promote ReSCoN to national/international level by enhancing interaction with other universities and research institutes.
  

• Push for increase in availability and transparency of quarters for spouses in research scholars with GSHA.
• Push to allow minors for PG students.
• Conduct a mega annual event for PG’s to showcase their intellectual properties and invite industry experts in coordination with STAB.
• Push for Online Approval System for TA stipend and courses dropping which also reduce needless paperwork, effort and thus speed up academic process.
• Push for MoU with more universities for exchange program.

Some of the important key initiatives, with far-reaching consequences, have been completed. The most notable have been increasing the flexibility of the PhD qualifier rule implementation in CTARA, conduction of an Open House for the Institute Honour Code and increasing the transparency in allotment of housing for married research scholars. Some progress has been made in making the process for reimbursement of conference grants speedy. There is virtually no progress in the proposal to allow PG students to take up minor courses, floating of PhD topics before admission in most of the departments and a central portal for booking lab slots.

RESEARCH AND INDUSTRIAL EXPOSURE

• Propose In house symposium with industry participation in the form of poster-presentations, workshops and seminars on ongoing research.
• Launch IIT Bombay PG Q&A online portal (like Quora) to solve all doubts related to academics, extra-curricular and to promote discussion on research in coordination with ISCP, IRSCP.
• Organize interactive/informal sessions among RSs to encourage research interactions and provide information regarding selection of relevant courses to research areas.
• Propose to optimize lab budget in department to upgrade basic lab-course related equipments.
• Organize relevant research industry visit semester wise through department AURAAs.

The novel idea of interactive sessions among Research Scholars was implemented in the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering departments, which was met with a good response. A Facebook page dedicated to queries of PG freshers was launched.

ACADEMIC ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME

• Conduct mock registration along with the department general secretaries and department AURAAs, prior to commencement of time table, to ensure hassle free core time-table and elective allocation.
• Create an online updated repository which contains a department-wise portal on research, technical activities and industry projects and a database of student along with project description, research papers and supervisors.
• Establish a feature-rich portal with pre-loaded information on all courses including course description, online study material, teaching trends, courseware from other universities and useful tips.

A round of mock course registrations is planned in the months of November and December, so as to avoid slot clashes in the upcoming semester. The ISCP website also has online course material for the benefit of students.

TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES

• Promote PG students participation in Technical Entrepreneurship and Innovations through in coordination with STAB, E-Cell, SINE.
  

• Conduct relevant summer & winter technical software workshops followed by relevant minor projects to provide hands-on experience to the students.

PGAC has been actively trying to disseminate infromation about various activities of STAB which are relevant to PG students, so as to promote technical innovation. The coordination with SINE and E-Cell, however, has not been satisfactory.

CAREER COUNSELING AND SOFT SKILLS DEVELOPMENT:

• Conduct professional classes to improve spoken English, technical writing, presentation skills, GD/interview skills, resume and SOP writing classes.
• Launch a placement help book, containing information related to written tests, interview questions, GD topics of most of the companies with the coordination of placement cell.
• Arrange video conferencing with alumni for guidance on higher studies and informative sessions on core and non-core jobs/internships, startups in coordination with SARC.
• Increase the number of companies providing internship for PG students with the coordination of Placement cell.

A workshop on technical writing and other soft skills is planned in association with British Council. The progress on provision of more internships for PGs has been slow. The main point of contention is permission from guides for internship aspirants, which are not easy to come by. The previous year experiences have been unsatisfactory, with students not being able to pursue internships.

FOLLOW UPS

• Ensure the confirmation on the issue of Stipend hike for all PG students by MHRD too.
• Ensure room allotment to fresh PG students in respective hostels before orientation programme with coordination of GSHA.
• Increase number of formal/informal sessions with PG freshmen to make them more aware about academic curriculum as well as extra-curricular activities.
• Basic programming and research workshops like research methodology, MATLAB, LaTeX etc.
• Increase collaboration of PG bodies (IRSCP, ISCP and RSF) with PG Academic council to promote research activities.

Arrears from DST, DBT and MHRD have been disbursed while those from CSIR, UGC and NBHM have been claimed. Additionally, IRCC support for a year beyond the stipulated duration of PhD is to continue. Workshops on research methodology, MATLAB and LaTeX have been conducted with enthusiastic particpation.

COUNCIL TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

• Ensure a blog containing amount of work done by the council, inviting suggestions and deciding the future course of action on policy decisions.
• Ensure Open houses are conducted in departments wherever possible to discuss academic issues.
• Keep PGAC website portal updated to notify students about all international scholarships & opportunities and speedy addressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dressme.co.nz/ball-dressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dresses.html”>dressme.co.nz/ball-dresses.html”>dress of academic problems through the Query & complaint portal.

  The council’s perfomance as far as transparency and accountability is concerned has been dismal. The planned blog for increasing transparency is not yet active. Though the PGAC page does give regular updates regarding events and activities for students, there are still no updates regarding international opportunities. The complaint and query portal also hasn’t seen the light of the day.

  GSAA (PG) Manifesto Review
  
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