Bengaluru: IISc will begin offering medical courses next year

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru is planning to start offering medical courses next year. Govindan Rangarajan, Institute Director, made the announcement during the virtual convocation ceremony on Wednesday.

“We are planning to start a postgraduate medical school on campus after about 100 years of excellence in science and engineering,” Rangarajan said, citing the interdisciplinary nature of other courses offered at the country’s premier science institution.

Rangarajan explained that IISc had both science and engineering represented equally right from its genesis. While IISc first offered studies in General Chemistry when it began in 1909, Departments of Electrical Technology and Organic Chemistry were quick to succeed.

The plan to begin courses in medical sciences had surfaced earlier this year, in May, as part of the implementation of the new National Education Policy (NEP–2020) upholding the nature of multidisciplinarity the new police was planning to instil.

The then Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal had chaired a meeting with the directors of IISc, IITs, IIITs, IISERs, and NITs, after which he confirmed that IISc and IIT Kharagpur would soon begin offering medical science courses.

Meanwhile, as many as 110 medals were conferred upon students for their academic excellence adjudged by various subject-expert panels. This included 18 of them picked winners of the Institute Medal from different disciplines.

Further, 1832 PhD and Master’s students, and 204 undergraduate students will receive their degrees at the convocation ceremony. Since IISc’s inception, more than 20,000 students have graduated from the Institute. IISc offers PhD and Integrated PhD programmes, several Master’s programmes (MTech, MTech (Res), MDes, MMgmt) and a four-year Bachelor of Science (Research) programme.