Hyderabad: Deakin varsity, IITH tie up for doctoral Program

Gachibowli: Deakin University (Deakin) and IIT Hyderabad (IITH) first signed an agreement for research collaborations in 2015, and since then, the association has only grown stronger. IITH is a partner in the Deakin-IITM, Centre of Excellence on Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (CoE).

Established in 1974, Deakin University is one of Australia's leading tertiary education providers and is ranked in the top 1% of world universities (ARWU). It has won numerous awards and teaches over 60,000 students each year offering students world-class programs and endless opportunities.

The two institutions have forged a very strong partnership in this domain through the CoE. The Joint Doctoral Program (JDP) will be offered in a wide range of subjects/disciplines, including Materials and Smart Manufacturing; Affordable Healthcare; Food, Environment, and Agriculture; Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science; Cyber-Physical Systems; Infrastructure and Energy.

The agreement was signed in a virtual event by Alfred Deakin Professor Julie Owens (Acting Vice-Chancellor, Deakin), and Prof BS Murty, Director, IITH, in the presence of Prof Pinaki Prasad Bhattacharjee (Dean, International and Alumni Relations), Prof Saptarshi Majumdar (Dean, Academics) from IITH, ProfBas Baskaran (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research), Professor Peter Hodgson, RavneetPawha (Global Vice President and CEO, S Asia), and KopalChaube Dutta from Deakin University, along with other officials from both institutions.

Successful candidates will spend between 3-12 months at Deakin depending upon the research requirements. IITH will provide the regular PhD fellowship to the students during their stay at IITH and when the students travel to Deakin, they will get a stipend, paid fortnightly, to increase the total equivalent stipend to $A28, 600 per annum. In addition to the above, Deakin will provide a full tuition fee waiver for up to 4 years and a top-up stipend of $A150 per month for 3 years while they are at IITH.

Prof BS Murty, Director, IITH, said, "Through this MoU, both IITH and Deakin will explore new avenues in the field of teaching and research through synergy to scale newer heights of excellence and will prove to be a winning quotient for the benefit of the society at large."