By Express News Service
GUWAHATI: The National Institute of Technology, Meghalaya (NIT-Meghalaya) not only has had a stunning rise despite being a nascent institute but it has also managed to consistently draw the attention of a large number of companies searching for bright brains.
Speaking at the institute’s foundation day at Sohra on Friday, its Director Prof Bibhuti Bhusan Biswal said despite the pandemic, 103 companies had participated in the placement drive this year, making altogether 153 offers.
“Over 70% of eligible interested final year students have been placed, with over 36% securing multiple offers. Microsoft offered the highest package of Rs 46 lakh per annum and the average compensation stands at Rs 10 lakh per annum,” Prof Biswal said.
“This bears testimony to the commendable endeavour of our Centre for career development and the excellent quality of our students. I am glad to inform you that various companies have already started recruiting for the internship of the current third-year students. More companies are in the pipeline for the upcoming months,” he added.
The institute currently has nine departments with 68 faculty members, six trainee teachers, five adjunct faculty members and one visiting faculty. The curricula for all the programmes have been redesigned with rigorous brainstorming exercises and inputs from experts from other institutes of higher learning, industries of various kinds, practicing engineers and senior alumni.
Prof Biswal said immediately after the National Education Policy was approved by the Union Cabinet on July 29, 2020, a committee was formed at the NIT-Meghalaya to identify the long-term and short-term actionable points.
The report presented by the committee was communicated to the Ministry of Education. In 2021, NIT-Meghalaya became one of the first institutions across the country to start the implementation of NEP, the Director said.
“…In collaboration with the State Council of Science Technology and Environment, Meghalaya, our Centre for Robotics and Mechatronics initiated the development of 3D printed masks and ventilator parts for the fight against COVID,” Prof Biswal said.
He said the combined efforts of faculty members, staff, students and scholars brought laurels to the institute.
Established in 2010 in the tourist destination of Shillong, the NIT-Meghalaya has outranked all the new NITs as well as several other established NITs after having secured a rank of 14th among the 31 NITs.
The institute occupies the second rank among all the NITs in the Northeast. It was ranked 100th in the engineering category in 2017. In the subsequent years, it was ranked 98th, 67th, 61st and 59th respectively.
It was adjudicated the “Best Institute in North East in 2021” by the Centre for Education Growth and Research (CEGR). The Director was awarded the “Visionary Leader of the Year 2021” by CEGR. He was also conferred with the “Educational Leader Award” by Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology and World Leadership Academy in the Leadership Convention on February 5 this year.
The institute currently operates from a temporary campus in Shillong. The permanent campus is coming at Sohra (Cherrapunjee) which is the wettest place on earth.
