THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a wait of eight years, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram, has moved into a permanent campus located in Mithrumala ward, Vithura. Classes for nearly half its students have begun at at the new permanent campus from this academic year.
Two hundred acres of land, set in the backdrop of the magnificent Western Ghats, was granted to the institute by the state government. Construction activities commenced soon thereafter. The first set of buildings and all the essential services were inaugurated in January 2016 by the then Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani.
The admission process was carried out on Friday at the permanent campus of the Institute at Vithura. A total of 176 students including 103 boys and 73 girl got admitted for the Five Years Integrated BS-MS Programme.
An orientation programme was held at the permanent campus to brief the academic structure and amenities made available to the students. V Ramakrishnan, director and other officials of the institute interacted with the students of fresh batch and their parents.
In addition the fresh batch of BS-MS Programme, the student of second year (Batch 2015) have also got shifted to the permanent campus a week prior to the admission of new batch. Altogether, a total 305 students will be carrying out their study from the residential campus of IISER-TVM. The operationalisation of its permanent campus is a new beginning for the institute. The facilities at the permanent campus include a central dining hall with a modern mechanised kitchen designed to serve over a 1000 meals at a time, Hall of Residences (separate for boys and girls) with basic facilities and WiFi, 24X7 health centre Facility with fully equipped ambulance, A multipurpose departmental store run by the employees’ co-operative society, digital library, recreational and sports facilities and modern computer rooms. A full-fledged indoor stadium is expected to be ready for use within this academic semester (December 2016). Staff quarters and guest house have also been made available to the faculty members of the Institute to reside and carryout teaching and research activities at the permanent campus.
Most of the remaining teaching activities and research laboratories will be completely shifted from the Transit Campus to Permanent Campus prior to commencement of next academic year (2017-2018). This would be a crucial step in allowing IISER to fulfill its potential to be a premier institution engaged in research and teaching in basic sciences.
From a modest beginning in 2008 at its transit campus graciously hosted by the College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram, with a first batch of 16 undergraduate students, the institute now has over 800 students in both undergraduate and graduate PhD programmes.