Mid-Tenure Review: General Secretary Academic Affairs PG

Link to the Mid-Term report :

Link to the GS-Meter : Click Here

General Body Meeting: General Secretary of Academic Affairs PG

On October 11, the Post Graduate Academic Council held its mid-tenure General Body Meeting (GBM), led by the GSAA PG Kunal Kailash Sharma and moderated by Hardi Desai (GSTA). The meeting provided a platform for the council to present its progress and address concerns from the student body and the general public.

Insight questions

Q1. As we have seen in the GS meter, many manifesto points have not yet been started or have been justified as non-feasible. Why has such a situation arisen, as this should have been noted during the election period? What are the plans for improving this?

We are changing the dynamics of ISCP (Institute Student Companionship Programme) and PGAC. Now they are working together closely, and integrating them took some time as many unexpected things happened. Also, the fundamental things are being addressed first; additionally, for many points, emails have been sent, and we await a response. Similarly, many things are very close to completion, just that we don’t have proof.

Follow-up: Shouldn’t the changes to the body have been known beforehand?

Groundwork and reality have been very different, so changes in the body were necessary as we saw the need for students’ wellbeing. We faced many administrative hurdles to do many things, and all very long projects have not started as they may not be ripe during this tenure. We will start them towards the end of our tenure.

Q2. TechConnect is conducted by IRCC along with Techfest, and you have proposed a tech council for it. What is its purpose, and how is it different from what IRCC conducts?

Having a separate event on this scale is difficult and ambitious, and students need to be involved. Hence, a Techfest-like student body is also needed, due to which things are gradual here this year. A tech council is there, but the vision is to transform this with more student involvement.

Follow up: IRCC is already doing something similar. How is this different?

The IRCC event is more industry-focused. In our event, on the other hand department representation is the focus.

Follow up: Shouldn’t the council’s primary work be organising, not participation?

We’ll focus on both things organising as well as participation

Q3. An initiative along the lines of conducting AI, data science workshops and placement-related talks(i.e organising a set of workshops on management and soft skills for PG students) is mentioned in the manifesto. What has been done for this?

PGs learn very diverse things, and hence, we are trying to focus on things that can help all the students. Due to this reason, we are conducting general workshops like the HR workshop conducted this month. The skill development sessions will be done later.

Follow-up: Students are getting busier now, and more importantly, all skill development sessions are needed. Conducting them later isn’t of much use. Additionally sessions like those on HR have already been conducted by different bodies.

Skill development events will also be done, but we are trying to personalise the event and conduct general events first, as emphasised earlier.

Follow up – How many skill development sessions are planned and when will they be conducted?

Sessions in technical areas are planned to be conducted once a week where professors, industry professionals, seniors, etc will be invited. We are planning on starting 2 weeks later (the last week of October), and we also plan to do one event every month which will be HR-related; we might decrease the frequency if fewer people show up.

Q4. Due to delays in receiving the scholarships students currently have to self-finance through the first year. How has the council tackled this issue?

We can only tackle this issue inside the institute’s purview as some things are not in the control of the institute. The funding agencies and companies cause delays, not the institute, so nothing can be done in this case.

Follow up – The institute can provide scholarship money till they get money from the funding financial institution?

Doing this will be very bothersome for accounts, and this can also lead to some people getting double scholarships, which will be hard to take back, and hence this cannot be done.

Q5. – Transportation money, which is needed to travel from the hostel to LHC and lab, should be subsidised 

Ans- This issue has been noted, groundworks will be done.

Q6. How many meetings have been conducted from the start of the tenure, and have the AURAAs been part of these meetings?

The AURAAs work on the ground level, and the EMs(execute members) are there to get insights from them. OCs of ISCP are at the department level. Core team members and OCs meet frequently.

Follow up -The AURAAS involvement can help in department-level representation

AURAAs and EMs do meetings which we discuss later at an executive level in the EM meeting.

We meet every Wednesday evening, and it gets delayed if there is any other important event. In total, five meetings were held after the complete team was formed.

Q7. What is the progress for increasing sem-ex for PG students?

This can be done with an IGSTC( Indo German Science and Technology Center) fellowship and with permission from the guide. In recent years, the Dean IR and we have seen an increase in sem-ex of PG students, and we will also try to make a push for it.

Q8. What are your expectations from companions?

We work from onboarding to deboarding, unlike SMP, and are available for all issues, including mental health, academics, etc. One DC( Department Coordinator)is enough for 5-10 PHDs as they don’t need much assistance. For masters, there is one DC for 4-5 SCs(student companion), and the reporting is from SCs to DCs to OCs to us.

Typically, mentors and freshers met once a month at the beginning, now fortnightly. The OCs meet DCs monthly.

Follow-up accountability mechanism

We plan to get feedback for every quarter, and we also plan to get specific feedback for all mentors.

Audience questions

Why were no non-tech workshops conducted?

Ans  An HR workshop was done.

Follow up: HR talk is done, but most people get rejected before the HR round; thus, AI, tech, consult, finance, etc, are more needed. Why are these workshops not done?

The department does workshops on non-tech, which differ from department to department, but if there is a common need, we will organise it. We plan to float a Google form in which we will try to understand the needs when the needs align, we can have a common event.

 How will you do this quickly?

Repeating the same event conducted by the placement cell is not helpful, as mentioned. Earlier a talk was done by the VP of Ansys which catered to both tech and non-tech, mock interviews were conducted, and two incentive points were also given. Even then, only 40-50 attended against an expectation of 500.

Outreach on the ground was not adequate. Why was the event not advertised enough?

We did circulate the message from PGAC, DCs, SCs, and AURAAs. We came very late so it isn’t possible to expect alot. We will improve on this, and a form will be floated to identify the need to start.

You mentioned working on a MoU with the teaching institute to launch a free course. When is this scheduled to happen ?

This initiative is not focused just on the upcoming placement but for all the upcoming batches. Right now we are identifying major needs and focusing on them as the needs have changed and vision alignment is happening.

What happened to IRCC and PGAC collaboration events?

We will try to organise such an event soon as per the needs  

Follow up on the pre-approval of NPTEL courses.

We have been in touch with HODs, but people don’t need such courses hence, there is a very small need. For example, as part of the Appeals Committee, someone had a six-month break due to some medical issue they were disturbed. We made NPTEL courses available to them. At present 2 courses can be done through NPTEL, and follow-up can be taken through HOD for specific things.

The MEMS Department Waste Management Committee is not present hence the department council the department is spending its own money to deal with it.

The issue is to be addressed. We thought that we already had a committee and were not aware of this issue and the fact that the committee was dissolved. We will be looking into it.

When will there be a PGAC video series you promised

We will be trying to record important workshops and posting them on YouTube

When will it happen?

Two weeks later, as profile verification of the speaker takes time, more time is needed, and there are many logistical issues as well. For example, we were in touch with the founder of Thyrocare, but the permission arrived 2 months later. It just shows that a mountain of work is done but is not realised completely.

What is the progress of allowing MTech to opt out of writing a thesis?

I raised it but got a huge backlash. It was said that MTech students must do research, so we plan to reframe it before sending it again. It is a work in progress.

What is the update on the department level MoU with PMRF students?

We have little information on this, so going in a new direction takes a lot of time, and delays happen due to causes beyond the institute’s purview.

Why wasn’t more work done on this front?

We are working on many projects at the same time.  

What is being done to reduce the duration of PhD?

This can be done by helping them to learn easily. We are highlighting the software path first, which other initiatives will follow later to improve the learning curve

What is the update on the IITB research journal?

As part of the research conclave as a first step, we have taken it as a handbook as it cannot be done in a short time. Whatever research happens, we will try to document it.

End of GBM 

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