Thapar University and Trinity College Dublin Announce Future Institutional Collaboration

24112014

November 24^th, 2014 – Trinity College Dublin and Thapar University announced their intention to develop an institutional partnership at a special event in New Delhi today. The future partnership will promote academic collaboration in the key areas of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, research, and student and staff mobility.  This collaboration is a central component of a major contemporisation programme that Thapar University is undertaking. It will also significantly contribute to Trinity College Dublin’s global engagement in attracting high calibre students.

This commitment follows exploratory high level discussions and visits by both institutions and a successful academic review in early November, 2014, by Trinity College Dublin of four Thapar University departments: Civil Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.

Trinity professors from Engineering (Civil, Electronic and Mechanical) and Computer Science and Statistics as well as the Academic Secretary formed part of the delegation and fully endorsed Thapar University’ s contemporisation programme.

The Trinity College review team found much to commend at Thapar University and looks forward to working collaboratively with Thapar staff and management to build on existing strengths and potential.  The report of the review team recommended a number of changes which, when implemented, the team felt would significantly enhance Thapar University’s standing as both a teaching and research university of international consequence. Thapar University’s well established reputation within India, together with the outstanding academic ability of its undergraduate students and good quality undergraduate programmes, provides a very strong platform for this collaboration.

Mr. Gautam Thapar, President, Thapar University stated “we value our partnerships. This partnership   will help address and bolster Thapar University’s position as a leading centre for higher education in India and in the region. We are pleased to have Trinity College Dublin’s support as we fulfil our mission of offering global standards in our deliverables at Thapar University and uphold the internationalization of higher education in the country”.

This future collaboration will explore the development of the award of twin, joint and dual degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate levels; student mobility and exchange; staff mobility; research collaboration.

Thapar University’s contemporisation programme will be strengthened from the experience and international reputation of Trinity College Dublin, its thriving international research output, its teaching-research culture, and its success in building research and innovation partnerships with national and international companies and industry.

Trinity College Dublin will benefit from collaborating with an Indian university such as Thapar University that has an ambition to be a global leader in its field. It will encourage joint research between the two institutions in areas of strength and opportunities for international mobility for faculty and students.

Speaking at the announcement event, the President & Provost of Trinity College Dublin,Dr Patrick Prendergast said: “As part of Trinity College Dublin’s global engagement it attracts students and staff of the highest calibre and promotes mobility among our staff with partnering international institutions. This is enabled by the development of strategic partnerships and joint partnership degree programmes with institutions globally. Today’s statement of intent with Thapar University is an important step in achieving this and we look forward to developing an agreement that will set out a process of collaboration.”

Commenting on what is a   landmark moment in Thapar University’s continuous quest for excellence, Mr. R.R. Vederah, Chairman of the Board of Governors, Thapar University remarked, ‘’we value Trinity College Dublin  as a partner and look forward to a rewarding collaboration. Trinity College Dublin is one of the world’s oldest universities- over 400 years old. Its cutting edge research, technology and innovation place the university at the forefront of higher education globally. This significant  comtemporisation initiative between TCD and TU promises to transform the education landscape in India and is in keeping with the trend of educational institutions coming together to forge global linkages and benefit their students, the leaders of tomorrow’’.

About Trinity College Dublin

Trinity College Dublin www.tcd.ie holds a global position as one of the leading universities in the world. Established in 1592, it is consistently ranked in the top 100 world universities by the QS World University Rankings, and is the highest ranking university in Ireland. Cutting edge research, technology and innovation places the university at the forefront of higher education in Ireland and globally.

It is located on a 19 hectare campus in the centre of Dublin city.  Its historic buildings are located alongside modern award-winning architecture of more recent generations. Trinity College Dublin has many great alumni, many of whom have helped shape the history of the world.  Nobel prize winners such as Ernest Walton for physics and Samuel Beckett for literature; great writers such as Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde; famous philosophers such as Edmund Burke and George Berkeley; renowned mathematician William Rowan Hamilton; and Presidents of Ireland, Douglas Hyde and Mary Robinson.  Today, Trinity alumni can be found in every sphere of society and are innovators in their fields, leaders in their communities and ambassadors for excellence all around the world.

Trinity College Dublin encompasses all major academic disciplines, and is committed to world-class teaching and research across the range of disciplines in the arts, humanities, engineering, science, social and health sciences.

It is Ireland’s leading university across all international rankings, and is ranked 71st place worldwide and in the top 25 in Europe in the recent QS World University Rankings 2014.

Trinity College Dublin’s Links with India

Trinity College Dublin has important research links and academic collaborations with a number of key Indian Higher Education Institutions. Building on longstanding work with institutions like Delhi University, the National Centre for Biological Science and the Indian Institute of Science, Trinity now has an extensive network of partnerships across India in all disciplines – from Neuroscience to Digital Humanities. A Delhi office was opened in 2012, facilitating more than 20 major Trinity missions in the past three years, in addition to hundreds of smaller academic engagements in India and regular visits by Indian academics to the TCD campus. Trinity leads the Irish Government’s Science Foundation Ireland-funded International Strategic Cooperation Award Programme for India, which works to strengthen exchange of research expertise between the two countries. With the announcement in November 2014 of Karnataka State Government funding for Science Gallery Bangalore to join the Science Gallery Network, along with Trinity College Dublin, the university’s presence in India is further cemented.

The number of Indian students joining Trinity College Dublin is increasing annually. The Trinity Indian Society, founded in 2009, is one of the fastest growing societies on campus, with Holi and Diwali celebrations now being enjoyed by the entire college community.

Trinity College Dublin’s strong ties with India reach back to the establishment of the chair of Oriental Languages in 1762. By the mid-nineteenth century not only were classical languages such as Sanskrit being taught at Trinity, but also numerous regional languages, not to mention courses in Indian law and history. In the second half of the nineteenth century, over 150 Trinity graduates entered the Indian Civil Service, trained at Trinity’s Indian Civil Service School. Among these was Trinity mathematician George Grierson, whose famous Linguistic Survey of India catalogued 364 Indian languages and dialects for the first time.

About Thapar University

Ranked among India’s leading institutions of engineering education, Thapar University in Patiala, Punjab has redefined technical education in the country through dissemination and application of actionable engineering knowledge. A steady source of highly skilled manpower to top Indian and overseas corporates, the sprawling 250-acre Thapar Technology campus, consisting of Thapar University, Thapar Polytechnic and Thapar Centre for Industrial Research and Development (TCIRD), has an extraordinary potential for development of indigenous technology and its transfer to engineering industries.

Standing tall on the four pillars of cutting-edge research capabilities, highly accomplished faculty, enviable infrastructure and smart academia-industry linkages, the 58-year-old university continually reinvents itself by upgrading its curriculum to match global needs through periodic self-assessment and formal reviews. One of the eight institutes selected by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for setting up a Centre of Relevance and Excellence, Thapar University sets a new benchmark in technical education with each passing day.

The university’s Science and Technology Entrepreneur’s Park, which was established as a joint venture between the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, the Union Department of Science and Technology and Thapar University (TU) in April 2005, is a centre for business incubation that is playing the role of a catalyst in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector by tapping new business opportunities through commercialisation and transfer of technology.

Set up in 2007, the university’s business school, LM Thapar School of Management (LMTSM), has evolved over the years to provide management education conducive to the dynamic business environment. LMTSM is committed to architecting a new business world order, where what is good for corporations will be good for all stakeholders. True to its motto “New India starts here”, LMTSM seeks to develop a new Indian business model grounded in the ethos of sustainability and inclusiveness.

Over the years, Thapar University has grown by leaps and bounds as a research-based university with focus on sunrise areas like nanotechnology, biotechnology and IT. Signifying a pioneering corporate effort to strengthen research, the TCIRD has been facilitating a dynamic interface with the academia and national and international R&D laboratories.

Driven by the conviction that original research—applied, industrial, technological and scientific—has to be the backbone of engineering education, the university has published over 2,500 research papers in peer-reviewed impact factor journals in the past five years alone. It has 119 ongoing research projects under its belt with a sanctioned grant of Rs 25.72 crore. Engaged in high-end research, the faculty of the university have so far filed 19 patents. Many of them are working on research projects sponsored by the industry.

Backed by the Avantha group, one of India’s most diversified conglomerates, Thapar University also rates high on infrastructure with its campus home to some of India’s best automation, automobile engineering, metrology, sand testing and solid mechanics facilities. Another feather in its cap is its Sophisticated Analytical Instruments Laboratory, a central facility to carry out high-end testing, consultancy and research. Recognised as an Environmental Laboratory by the Ministry of Environment, Government of India, this lab is the only one in north-western India that has the swirl testing facility for combustion engines.

Aspiring to become a globally acclaimed university, Thapar University is in sync with the ever-evolving global trends in technical education through MoUs with various foreign universities. These MoUs have given students much-needed global exposure through the best of exchange programmes and collaborative research initiatives. Thanks to strong academia-industry linkages, many leading corporates are now a regular feature at Thapar University placements, a glowing testimony to the university’s reputation as a top-notch technical institute. Both reputed Indian and international companies are associated with Thapar University for research as well as faculty exchange programmes.