Faculty summer training makes lateral entry

University of Petroleum and Energy Studies laps up

Giving a twist to faculty training programmes, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) has initiated the process of sending faculty members to summer training stints apart from the industry norm of students taking up summer assignments.

UPES Chief Executive & President Utpal Ghosh said here on Wednesday that 52 of the 525 permanent faculty members had completed their summer training this year alone.

"From our experience, we found summer training equipped the faculty better with the evolving technologies in the work spheres, which aids in better classroom teaching and understanding by students," he informed.

Ghosh said during summer training the faculty members even worked on live projects in the real work environments.

Apart from permanent faculties, UPES has 25-30 visiting faculties, including some from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K).

Currently, UPES has about 11,000 students studying in 79 disciplines across 14 core sectors viz. energy, IT, design and planning, architecture, business, public policy and legal studies.

He said UPES placement data suggested there was a great demand for new age courses by companies and recruiters even as some of the country's top institutions had faced placement blues this year.

The University has also set up an incubation and entrepreneurship centre to aid students to pursue their entrepreneurial goals.

"We are now proposing to virtually underwrite the entrepreneurial venture of our students if they opt out of the placement season from next year. In case, their startup venture fails, we would allow such students to participate in the placement activity in the subsequent seasons," he added.

UPES was established in 2003 through UPES Act, 2003 in Uttarakhand. It is recognised by University Grants Commission (UGC) and accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). It has two campuses in Uttarakhand, he said.