In view of the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, has launched a portal to help foreign students continue with their research as well as facilitate hassle-free admission to various courses.

The portal, ir.iitism.ac.in, was launched by the office of dean of International Relations and Alumni Affairs of IIT (ISM).

The portal will ensure that faculty members of foreign institutes can apply to carry out joint collaborative research with IIT (ISM) students and simultaneously allow the student to take admission into a four-year undergraduate programme (B. Tech), besides two-year M. Tech programme and even a doctoral in PhD programme.

Talking about the portal, dean of the department concerned, professor Dhiraj Kumar, said the portal was developed by a group of varsity students who are also carrying out various responsibilities, including media branding, international relations, alumni affairs coordination. This will allow the students from foreign institutes to carry out course work/project work/internship not exceeding two semesters (of six months each) using the portal, Kumar said.

A view of the heritage building of IIT(ISM), Dhanbad, on Wednesday, June 24, 2020. Gautam Dey

“The detailed information regarding the eligibility of the full-time courses as well as joint collaborative research and semester exchange programmes, besides the infrastructure facilities and details of faculty members are available on the newly-developed portal,” said Kumar, a professor of mining engineering department of the institute, who is also the in-charge of mine surveying section of the department.

The foreign students can also get details of various scholarship and fellowship programmes meant of them, including scholarship of department of higher education of ministry of human resource development, scholarship and fellowship of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Mitacs Globalink Research Internship, German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship, Fulbright Scholarship, Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Scholarship, Indo US Science and Technology Forum Scholarship, ASIAN India Research Training Fellowship, among others.

“The portal will also be useful for our students who intend to go to foreign universities or institutes to pursue joint collaborative research work,” said Kumar, adding that after launching the portal, they are working to develop a separate portal for the alumni affairs section by next week. It will help the alumni of the institute spread across the world connect with each other in a better way, the professor said.