Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani
Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani is a deemed university and Institute of Eminence under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956 for higher education and research in India. The institute is backed by the Aditya Birla Group and is one of the first six institutes to be awarded the Institute of Eminence status in 2018. After expansion to a campus in Dubai, it has become the first international deemed university, spearheading in science, engineering and research with 4 established campuses and 15 academic departments. It focuses primarily on higher education and research in engineering and sciences. Its history, influence, wealth and endowments have made it one of India's most prestigious universities.
The institute was established in its present form in 1964. During this period, the institute's transformation from a regional engineering college to a national university was backed by G.D. Birla. Since then, it is considered to be in the league of old IITs for science and engineering and has expanded its campuses from Pilani to Goa, Hyderabad and Dubai. BITS alumni have continued to strongly shape the Indian economy and culture. Through its highly successful and widespread alumni network spanning globally across varied fields, BITS Pilani has made a significant impact on corporates, academia, research, entrepreneurship, arts and social activism.
BITS conducts the All-India computerized entrance examination, BITSAT. Admission is purely merit-based, as assessed by the BITSAT examination. The fully residential institute is privately supported.
History
Inception
The Birla Education Trust was founded in 1929; the intermediate college became a degree college and later offered postgraduate courses. The masters programme in electronics began in 1955.Reacting to early criticism about the project, contemporary advisor Thomas Drew said:
BITS Pilani became a deemed university established under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 by notification No. F.12-23/63.U-2 of 18 June 1964.
In 1964, the Birla Colleges of Humanities, Commerce, Engineering, Pharmacy and Science were merged to form the Birla Institute of Technology & Science. The board provided direction in developing a curriculum, selecting equipment, upgrading the library and recruiting an Indian faculty. To quicken the pace of reform he convinced C. R. Mitra to be the new director of the institute. Mitra advocated a "practice school" internship program as a requirement for faculty and students. The Practice School Program is still a requirement for students in BITS.
According to Robert Kargon and Stuart Leslie:
The acceptance rate of BITS Pilani is 1.47% based on the data of BITSAT 2012.
Like Berkeley, BITS Pilani has also experienced student activism. BITS Pilani had to be shut down multiple times because of student strikes during 1973, 1980, and 1985.
Multi-campus expansion
In 1999, enrollment expanded from 2,500 to 4,000 and campuses were founded in Dubai and Goa. In 2006, BITS Pilani acquired of land from the Andhra Pradesh government through the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority for a new campus. The land is located in Jawaharnagar, Shameerpet Mandal in the Rangareddy district. The BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus opened in 2008; the school also has a virtual university and an extension center in Bangalore.Chancellor and academic head
BITS Pilani has a tradition of long-serving chancellors and vice-chancellors. Its founder, G.D. Birla, was chancellor from the college's inception until his death in 1983. He was followed by his son, Krishna Kumar Birla, who was chancellor until his death in 2008. Currently, Kumar Mangalam Birla is chancellor and Shobhana Bhartia is pro-chancellor.The first academic head of the institution was J. C. Stracliff and V. Lakshminarayanan for a period of 3 years during 1946–1949. V. Lakshminarayan became Principal of Birla Engineering College in 1949, then becoming the first Director of BITS-Pilani in 1964 when it was formed and served till 1969. He was succeeded by BITS directors C.R. Mitra and S. Venkateswaran. "director" denoted the head of a campus.
Under Prof S. Venkateswaran's leadership, the University grew significantly. He was instrumental in expanding BITS, Pilani to establish the other 3 campuses in Goa, Dubai and Hyderabad. With the advent of multiple campuses, the overall head was known as "vice-chancellor"; As a result, Dr. Venkateswaran became the first Vice Chancellor leading all campuses in 2001.
After his retirement, Prof. L.K. Maheshwari became the second Vice Chancellor in 2006 and kept office till 2010 when he was succeeded by Prof. Bijendra Nath Jain who held office till 2015. The director of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus, Prof. VS Rao took over in August 2015 as the 'Acting Vice chancellor' while the search was on for a suitable candidate to hold the top post in BITS Pilani. In April 2016, Chancellor Kumar Mangalam Birla announced that Prof. Souvik Bhattacharya of IIT Kharagpur / Jadavpur University was selected to take over as the new Vice chancellor of BITS Pilani. He took over in June 2016 to become the 6th academic head of the institute.
Admission
Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad campuses
Before 2005, admissions were based on the candidates' score in the qualifying examination. BITS had been moderating marks from various school boards since 1982.Since 2005, admission to BITS has been offered on the basis of the student's performance in the all-India entrance examination, the Birla Institute of Technology and Science Admission Test. For foreign students, BITS has a separate admission scheme called International Student Admissions category. To gauge the merit of these ISA students, BITS accepts the SAT and SAT Subject Tests in chemistry, physics, and Math 2C. BITSAT, for which applications are submitted in December, is conducted online in May and June in cities all over India. The exam tests the candidate's knowledge, reasoning and analytical abilities in physics, chemistry, mathematics, English and logical reasoning, and is based on higher secondary curricula in India and abroad. A 2012 news report showed that had become more competitive than the IIT-JEE, in terms of the ratio of the number of aspirants to the number of seats available.
Dubai campus
Admission to Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani – Dubai Campus is solely based on scores in the 12th standard qualifying exam. Although the BITS Pilani-Dubai campus was established for the educational requirements of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, admission is open to students of all nationalities.Campuses
Pilani campus
Pilani is located west of Delhi and north of Jaipur; the BITS campus is to the west of Pilani bus stand. The area of the campus is ; its developed area is, of which is used for the BITS building. The campus has of classrooms and of laboratories.temple, BITS Pilani
BITS has a Birla Mandir dedicated to the goddess Saraswati, Sharda Peeth, built by G. D. Birla. The white marble temple is built on a -high foundation, with 70 pillars for support. It covers an area of.
The Pilani campus has India's first technological museum, the Birla Museum. Built in 1954, it showcases technological achievements.
BITS has a auditorium decorated with paintings by students from the department of art and decoration.
Residential and dining facilities
The institute has fourteen hostels in total. Each hostel is referred as a "Bhawan", the Sanskrit word for hostel. Thirteen of them – Krishna Bhawan, Vishwakarma Bhawan, Rana Pratap Bhawan, Bhagirath Bhawan, Ashok Bhawan, Gandhi Bhawan, Shankar Bhawan, Vyas Bhawan, Budh Bhawan, Ram Bhawan, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Bhawan, CV Raman Bhavan and Srinivasa Ramanujan Bhawan are for male students. There is a single hostel for female students called Meera Bhawan. The institute also has one more hostel for parents and guests The hostels are named after saints, scientists, and historical and religious figures.Every two hostels share a mess hall except Meera Bhawan, Srinivasa Ramanujan Bhawan and Sir C V RAMAN Bhawan which have their own mess halls. All dining areas are student-managed. Students may also eat at a "Redi", Institute Canteen, the All-Night Canteen and the Student Activity Centre cafeteria, LOOTERS. The ANC is also student-managed. more over there is a small area inside campus called "Connaught" which has many restaurants, cafes, etc. and has shops for general daily needs as well.
Vision 2020, Mission 2012
In 2010 the institute launched a renewal project, "Vision 2020, Mission 2012," to identify and implement measures establishing BITS Pilani as one of India's top three research-led universities by 2015 and among the leading 25 technical universities in Asia by 2020. As a part of this initiative, Kumar Mangalam Birla visited the Pilani campus on 13 November 2011 with pro-chancellor Shobhana Bhartia and other members of the board of governors. At this meeting, Birla announced a Rs. 600 crore fund for renovation and construction of new academic buildings and student hostels on the Pilani campus. The project was planned for completion in 2014.Goa campus
Hyderabad campus
Dubai campus
Student life
The Students' Union is the elected administrative body for the students. Elections are supervised by a student commission. The student-run Corroboration and Review Committee handles financial transactions for the Students' Union. The Governing Council of the Society for Student Mess Services manages dining matters.OASIS
is the annual cultural festival of the BITS, Pilani. It hosts a variety of events in various categories like Dance, Drama, Literature, Comedy, Fashion and Music.BITSMUN
BITS Model United Nations Conference is one of the largest MUN conferences in the country. Organized annually in Pilani, BITSMUN attracts experienced and first time MUN participants from colleges and schools all over the globe.The conference was founded in 2007 as a grassroots project aimed at introducing Model UN to students who otherwise would not have the opportunity to participate in this experience. It has in the current past been expanding to an increasing number of colleges and schools from all parts of the world to encourage greater participation in an activity that brings together knowledge in international relations and interpersonal skills.
BOSM
is the annual sports competition at the Pilani campus. BITS-Pilani invites colleges throughout India to participate in events including carrom board, hockey, cricket, basketball, football, volleyball, track and field, badminton, tennis, table tennis, squash and weightlifting. Since its 2010 Silver Jubilee anniversary, BOSM has invited a team from Moratuwa University in Sri Lanka.APOGEE
APOGEE is an international annual technical festival at the Pilani campus. Since its inception in 1983, APOGEE has hosted students and researchers from across the country. The guest lecture series of the fest, Think Again Conclave has received eminent speakers in the past which include A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Richard Stallman, Jimmy Wales, Kailash Satyarthi, Walter Lewin and A. S. Kiran Kumar. Other events include the Paper Presentation Event, which is one of the oldest research paper presentation platforms in the country, and Project Presentation, which exhibits over 550 projects in various fields of science and engineering.AAROHAN
Aarohan is a pan-India examination conducted in two rounds for Classes 9th-12th by the Department Of External Affairs at BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus, which has had widespread participation not only from India but also internationally from Europe and the Middle East. Regional winners of Round 1 get invited to BITS Pilani during APOGEE, the international technical festival of BITS, where they are tested on their analytical and technical skills and IQ through a series of events and workshops constituting the Round 2.The Department Of External Affairs also conducts an online competition for students that goes by the name 'Wissenova', a German word meaning 'innovative knowledge'. It is held as a series of monthly contests with each contest being independent of the others.
Spark
BITS Spark programme was launched in 2012. The programme promotes entrepreneurship courses and workshops, offers mentorship, and provides angel funds.Academics
The institute has a three-tier academic structure.First degrees
BITS Pilani offers four-year integrated first-degree programs in engineering, technology and pharmacy, and integrated Master of Science programs in science and technology.MS degrees
BITS Pilani offers master's in engineering, pharmacy, public health and business administration.Doctoral degrees
BITS Pilani offers Ph.D in engineering, pharmacy, natural sciences, public health and business administration.Off-campus programs
BITS Pilani offers off-campus programs in which students receive work experience in industry. Enrollment has increased from 30 in 1979 to over 10,000 in 2005. More than 19,500 students were registered in off-campus work-integrated learning programs in 2008–09.International projects
BITS Pilani is a partner in developing the JournalServer open-access digital library, Project IPV6 and the MIT iCampus initiative.Rankings
Internationally, BITS Pilani was ranked 801–1000 in the QS World University Rankings for 2020. The same rankings ranked it 175 in Asia in 2020 and 96 among BRICS nations in 2019. It was ranked in 401-500 for Life Sciences and 1001+ overall in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2020, 301-350 in Asia and 351-400 among Emerging Economies in 2020.In India, BITS Pilani was ranked 27 overall in 2020 by the National Institutional Ranking Framework, 15 among universities, 30 in the engineering ranking and 6 in India in the pharmacy ranking. It was ranked 7th among engineering colleges by India Today, sixth among engineering colleges by Outlook India and seventh among engineering colleges by The Week in 2019.
The Department of Management was ranked 10 among private management schools in India by Outlook Indiain 2020.