The University of Hyderabad (UoH) celebrated the 74th Republic Day with the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. B J Rao, unfurling the National Flag at the Gurbaksh Singh Maidan on the campus.
Earlier Prof. R.S. Sarraju, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, had unfurled the National flag at Golden Threshold campus in the city.
Prof. B J Rao, paid tributes to the freedom fighters who brought independence and prepared the Constitution that guides us to function as a secular, democratic and republic nation.
“Our country functions as a secular, democratic and republic nation under the framework of the Constitution. We have also gained respect and admiration among the nations of the world for upholding of the principles of democracy. Let us pay tributes to all those who made sacrifices and fought for our independence and made us a proud Republic. Freedom and the Constitution have given us rights, along with greater responsibilities”, Prof. B J Rao emphasized.
Recalling the achievements of the UoH during the last year, Prof. Rao said, “The 2022 NIRF Rankings placed UoH at the 10th spot among all the universities. We need to put in more efforts and ensure that we move up in the rankings. It is also a moment of pride that our university continues to be in the top position in Nature Index 2022 ranking. It has been ranked First among universities category in India.”
Highlighting the research achievements, Prof. Rao said, “I am very happy to inform that Prof. K.C. James Raju and Prof. Surajit Dhara, faculty members from the School of Physics have been selected for the 7th Visitor’s (President of India) Awards, 2021 under the category Visitor’s Award for Technology Development and Visitor’s Award for Research (Physical Sciences), respectively. This is a great honour as for the first time two of our university Professors were selected for this award in the same year. Earlier one faculty each was awarded in 2018 and 2020.’
“We have been doing well on the Research front. In the paper on study done by Stanford University titled “science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators” published by Elseiver in October 2022 places 27 researchers associated with our university among the top 2% in the World. It’s a great achievement as very few institutions in India and abroad will have such numbers.” he added.
“Placements are on the rise at the University. I am happy to inform you all that the year 2021-22 witnessed good placements with highest number of students getting placed in the history of the institution. The Placement Guidance and Advisory Bureau team has been able to coordinate with the companies and ensured placements for 541 students in 196 companies with a highest package of Rs:23 Lakhs per annum in 2021-22. This is wonderful compared to 421 students placed in 2020-21”, said Prof. Rao.
While concluding his address, Prof. B J Rao said, “The University is making all out efforts to broaden and deepen internationalization, forge and expand effective international partnerships, and position our students to be global citizens. With all the support from the group of students, faculty, officers and administrative staff, let us make UoH a vibrant campus and work hard to fly high and become not only the best University in the country but a top ranking one globally.”
A special patriotic dance was performed by the campus school students on the occasion.
The complete speech of the Vice-Chancellor can be read below:
74th Republic Day – VC’s Speech (January 26, 2023)
Dear faculty colleagues, officers, staff, students, children and invited guests: Greetings to everyone assembled here for the 74th Republic Day celebrations. We have now completed 73 years of our Indian Republic, today.
Our country functions as a secular, democratic and republic nation under the framework of the Constitution. We have also gained respect and admiration among the nations of the world for continued upholding of the principles of democracy. Let us pay tributes to all those who made sacrifices and fought for our independence and made us a proud Republic. Freedom and the Constitution have given us rights, along with greater responsibilities.
The University of Hyderabad welcomed the New Year by forging collaborations with four eminent institutions/organisations very recently. The focus is on contributing to the academic/research growth and offering new age programs to the youth of the country and abroad. Just as a sample, the collaborations entered into in the month of January 2023 by us include:
With KIMS Foundation and Research Center (KFRC), a research Unit of Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Secunderabad, With TimesPro signed on to offering new-age management programmes for learners in India and overseas to equip themselves with modern business practices and build competencies to elevate their careers. With Fernandez Foundation (FF) signed for undertaking academic exchange, research, and translational research initiatives between the two institutions. With Tata Institute of Fundamental Research—Hyderabad (TIFR-H) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on renewing the commitment of both institutions for continuing their academic collaboration in education and research.
There are 40+ active MoU’s entered into by the University and I appeal to all stakeholders to utilize the benefits out of it.
The 2022 NIRF Rankings place UoH at the 10th spot among all the universities. We need to put in more efforts and ensure that we move up in the rankings. It is also a moment of pride that our university continues to be in the top position in Nature Index 2022 ranking. It has been ranked First among universities category in India.
I am very happy to inform that Prof. K.C. James Raju and Prof. Surajit Dhara, faculty members from the School of Physics have been selected for the 7th Visitor’s (President of India) Awards, 2021 under the category Visitor’s Award for Technology Development and Visitor’s Award for Research (Physical Sciences), respectively. This is a great honour as for the first time two of our university Professors were selected for this award in the same year. Earlier one faculty each were awarded in 2018 and 2020.
We have been doing well on the Research front. In the paper on study done by Stanford University titled “science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators” published by Elseiver in October 2022 places 27 researchers associated with our university among the top 2% in the World. It’s a great achievement as very few institutions in India and abroad will have such numbers. Our faculty have been active and for the year 2021-22 we received 70 research projects at a value of Rs: 35 crores. Our faculty members are executing around 150 projects of approximately 200 Crores on campus (as of December 30, 2022). In the year 2022, we have submitted around 140 research projects to different funding agencies Nationally and Internationally. I urge all faculty members to have more projects and consultancies which can benefit research scholars and add value to the academic reputation of our university.
On innovation front at ASPIRE, the Section 8 company at UoH: The first incubatee of TIDE, namely, Manjeera Digital Systems Private Limited (MDS) has now exited the incubation from TIDE-ASPIRE. MDS was supported with seed fund, in lieu of which ASPIRE has opted for shares of the company. This is a wonderful moment for all of us and we expect many more to follow suit enriching the ASPIRE system.
Our outgoing teams such as University Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), ICC & Proctorial board etc have done a commendable job, in keeping with recent developments and directives from the UGC. I want to thank them and hope that they would provide useful inputs to the new teams whenever they are sought. In research and development, we are one of the best performing Institutes in India. Creating knowledge for a better world is our vision. Research excellence and Research with global impact are also our goals. Our faculty members actively engage in high-impact research to achieve the goal. We have established state-of-the-art research Infrastructures. As a result, in 2022, we published approximately 1150 high-quality research papers (as per the Scopus database) in Journals and conferences of International repute.
The Institution of Eminence program has moved from the planning to the implementation phase in the last one year by announcing several new schemes. Some of the schemes are the student achiever’s awards for the topper in a semester in a PG programme, the publication based performance incentive per month for the first publication and an additional incentive per month for the second publication, in addition to the Rs 8,000/- per month, to non-NET PhD fellowship holders has so far benefitted the students. The travel grant of Rs 1 lakh for presenting papers in international conferences outside India has been awarded to students and faculty members. With a view to improving perception and visibility of the University, financial support has been provided for organising (national and international) conferences/ symposiums/ workshops. In the last six months alone, 38 meetings have been held on campus. In addition, a special call to support the research programs of SC/ ST/ Women and PWD faculty members was announced and 39 proposals to the tune of Rs 7.74 crores have been sanctioned.
Other financial support through professional development funds, teaching and skill development programmes, development of e-learning resources, repair maintenance of existing equipment and buildings, upgradation of the campus network connectivity, maintenance grant to academic units, human resource support has steadily increased in the last one year.
As part of the internationalization efforts, two IoE Chair Professors have been nominated (Prof. U Ramamurty of NTU SIngapore and Prof. Anant Paradkar of Liverpool University, UK). Two more (Professor Chennupati Jagadish of ANU, Australia and Prof. Pamela Howard of Birmingham University, UK) are also expected to join the list soon.
High-end equipment worth Rs 64 crores are expected to be purchased and installed in the next 12 months.
The University has embarked upon ambitious projects to construct new buildings under the IoE programme including: The Interdisciplinary Research Cluster with an area of ~250,000 sqft at a cost of ~Rs 130 crores; the HRDC building with an area of ~40000 sq ft at a cost Rs 14 crores, A new 50 room, International standard Guest House, new Administration building, 400 seater Hostels ( 1 each for boys and girls) and a new Lecture Hall complex near the east campus are all expected to enhance the teaching, research, student and administrative infrastructure of the University in the next few years. Last Republic day I had mentioned that 13 buildings were at different stages of completion with an investment of about Rs. 160 crores. 10 buildings have since been completed out of which 3 were inaugurated by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister for Education and Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India. 3 buildings will be completed by 31st March 2023. Under IoE another 5 buildings worth 250 crores will be coming up.
It is heartening to note that all stakeholders are now participating actively and it is now certain that the IoE programme will have a positive impact on the University’s global standing.
The University has completed the Integrated PG, PG and PhD admissions successfully and for the first time we took part in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for integrated PG and PG courses. UoH received massive response in the CUET-UG and CUET-PG exams where 1,65,902 Integrated PG applicants and 2,76,209 PG applicants opted for UOH as one of their choice destinations for study. Another 290 plus PhD scholars have also joined recently and the campus looks active and bright with more than 5000 students.
We conducted the 22nd Convocation on 1st October, 2022 for 3 batches together and a total of 4800 Degrees were awarded including 573 PhD Degrees. Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister for Education and Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India was the chief guest and he had reiterated that innovation and entrepreneurship will help India become an economic superpower and a knowledge-based economy.
A total of 37009 Degrees awarded till date are made available in the National Academic Depository (NAD Digi locker). We have also successfully boarded the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) and all the end semester exam results will be uploaded in the ABC portal shortly.
The Samarth e-Governance implementation is in progress and the University completed all the admissions for AY 2022-23 through the Samarth. Cooperation of all stakeholders is requested for faster boarding of all the modules for complete digitalization of the governance processes in the University.
The one important development from MoE, GoI, is that “ONE NATION ONE SUBSCRIPTION,” through which all the Centrally funded institutions, including central universities, will get around 70 major international databases/e-journals/tools, which will save huge budget on our yearly subscription spending of around Rs. 8.00 crore. This is a major boost for all the centrally funded institutions to get such kind of important online databases/journals for their teaching and research.
Placements are on a rise at the University. I am happy to inform you all that the year 2021-22 witnessed good placements with highest number of students getting placed in the history of the institution. The Placement Guidance and Advisory Bureau team has been able to coordinate with the companies and have ensured placements for 541 students in 196 companies with a highest package of Rs:23 Lakhs per annum in 2021-22. This is wonderful compared to 421 students placed in 2020-21. For year 2022-23, about 261 students are already placed in 109 companies so far, and this number is likely to go up further. Let’s all together help the Placement Guidance and Advisory Bureau in motivating and placing more and more students.
I am happy to inform you that 59 long pending Audit Para’s have been dropped in consultation with the AG’s Office. The eligible Officers and Non-Teaching Staff were awarded financial up-gradation under the MACP Scheme.
We have more than 37,000 alumni and would like involve them in the activities of the university and encourage them to contribute more for the progress and eminence of our University. Several of them are working across the globe in different organizations in different capacities and we are proud of their career progression. The University Alumni Cell has been constituted as per guidelines of the UGC. A dedicated webpage on the university website has been initiated. May I request all of you to help in disseminating it among the alumni in your contact list.
The University is making all out efforts to broaden and deepen internationalization, forge and expand effective international partnerships, and position our students to be global citizens. The Office for International Affairs (OIA) is reviewing the array of international activities; articulating student learning goals for international learning; assessing progress towards those goals; and developing a strategic plan to broaden and deepen internationalization.
We are now moving ahead with new recruitments for both teaching and non-teaching in Mission Mode. Following due procedures we expect to complete the process in four months from now. Notification for faculty recruitment will be announced soon.
While the intellectual resource of faculty and students have brought us several (too many to list here) laurels, we must remember and gratefully acknowledge the required support given by the Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission in the form of Grants. We also received substantial funding from other national and international funding agencies. I thank all of them on behalf of the University.
The university is abuzz with all the students now on campus. I request all the students and colleagues to follow all the covid rules and regulations in place to make our campus safe and free from Covid19. With all support from the group of students, faculty, officers and administrative staff, let us make UoH a vibrant campus and work hard to fly high and become not only the best University in the country but a top ranking one globally.
Warm greetings, once again, on this 74th Republic Day to everyone present here, with tributes to our national leaders who brought us this freedom and built such a strong foundation through the Constitution.
JAI HIND, JAI BHARATH