Diversity is necessary for academia to grow: IIT Jodhpur Director ahead of convocation on December 19

The convocation ceremony, which will be in hybrid in-person and virtual mode, will include a video message by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Chaudhury went on to talk about the NEP 2020 and said that graduating batch had a similar curriculum 

Ahead of their convocation on December 19, where 404 students would be conferred with their BTech, MTech and PhD degrees, the Indian Institute of Technology (Jodhpur) Director encouraged aspirants to take advantage of the Meghnad Saha Post-Doctoral Fellowship designed for students of reserved category and for those who fall under the EWS category.

Saha was a prominent astrophysicist in pre-independence India noted for his development of the thermal ionization equation in the early 1920s. IIT Director Santanu Chaudhury, at a virtual conference, said that the fellowship will bring in much-needed diversity in academia, he said, "Diversity is necessary for academia to grow. Meghnad Saha belonged to disadvantaged categories and went on to distinguish himself as a brilliant scientist. This is open for SC, ST, OBC and EWS students because they can bring value to academic sections." Pointing that this is distinct from the reservation policy as mandated by law, the Director added, "There are of course provisions for reserved categories as per law in other admissions. This fellowship is specially created for students from disadvantaged backgrounds." 

The convocation ceremony, which will be hybrid, will include a video message by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Chaudhury went on to talk about the National Education Policy 2020 and said that the graduating students were already studying under a form similar to the NEP. "A large number of students are graduating with specialisation in line with NEP where cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplininary education is encouraged," he said.