Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Review By Kshitij Behre

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Berhampur, is a research and education institute in Odisha. The ministry of the human resources department establishes the institute. This research institute's main focus is to promote the idea of scientific learning and research among their students. Courses like humanities and error analysis help students grow their communication skills along with problem-solving. The institute started functioning with its first batch's arrival during the academic year of 2016-17. Being one of India's top-tier premium colleges, the administration mainly focuses on providing quality education and broad exposure to the students. IISER provides undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctorate levels of education and has recently started the i-PhD program. The college has three different programs, which go by the name of BS-MS dual degree, Ph.D., and Integrated-PhD. After completing their 12th boards, students can join the dual degree course by appearing for the entrance exam. During the first two years of the program, students are taught various core courses, and in the third year, they have to opt for a major course. Being a second-year student can say that during this two year of core learning, I was exposed to a lot of different areas of knowledge.

We have regular lab sessions where we are introduced to many new instruments and experiments. The class timing usually starts from 10:00 am, which continues till 1:00 pm for the lunch break, and again, the classes resume from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm. It is a residential college, and students have to go to their hostels. Students come from different parts of the country, which is the best part about any national-level college like IISER. A mixture of all the cultures can be found here. The institute conducts many outreach programs which helps students interact with the society and share their ideas. The students also get a chance to participate in international competitions under the guidance of experienced mentors.

Every department consists of highly educated and professional faculties. Each faculty is qualified with a post-doctoral degree. They are very friendly but can also be strict with academics. The Institute authorities also invite guest faculties to take some courses as a part of the program. Every professor present in IISER Berhampur has a passion for science. The faculties are also working on their research works along with teaching. The grading policy of the institute is CPI-based.

The students of this college do their internships at different research institutions like IISC, TIFR, NCBS, IISERs. The college authorities also conduct a summer internship program for which applications are already out. The internship process is good enough, and the faculties also accept to refer the students to other researchers upon request. Since the college's first batch has not completed their academic term in the college, the placement procedure is not properly known. After completing their BS-MS course, most of the students opt to go for a Ph.D. degree abroad.

The hostels are quite spacious and clean. Some hostel rooms, usually the girls' hostels, have attached washrooms in the twin sharing or triple sharing rooms, while the boys' hostel has a common washroom. The institute manages a house-keeping service. There are, of course, separate hostels provided for boys and girls. Every hostel is equipped with CCTV surveillance, and guards are present 24/7. The hostels are assigned a particular caretaker who manages the students' complaints and issues living there regarding the hostel. The mess food is manageable, but it is sometimes not bearable.

The institute is still now in its transit campus. The permanent is hopefully going to be functional from 2022. After all, being a national college, it doesn't lack laboratory facilities. The labs of different departments are highly equipped and fully functional. The library is very well managed with sufficient reading space. Lecture halls are air-conditioned with properly functioning projectors and whiteboards. There is a bus facility for the students living in hostels that are far from the institute for easy transportation.

The college conducts lots of fests and also celebrates most of the festivals. There are science clubs and also cultural clubs managed by the students which keep conducting different activities. The annual cultural fest conducted by the institute named KYRAT was a great success. Apart from cultural fests, the college conducts an annual science fest, "STREAM," also an outreach program. Since the campus is situated in the city, the crowd around the institute is good. The faculties are very comfortable with the English language. Sometimes there are seminars where the speaker is from a foreign institute and has also done remarkable research work. One of the most interesting things about IISERs is the IICM and IISM, the inter IISER cultural and sports meet. Students from different IISERs represent their college in different activities, and you can witness a healthy competition.