Perfect symbiosis

TERI University churns out skilled professionals to protect the environment while making ‘sustainable’ careers for its students Vimal Chander Joshi reports

Pallavi Pant works with a US-based NGO as a consultant and is paid well. Before joining the industry, she spent one semester on a research project at Yale (the best in the world, as per the latest QS World University Rankings) during her MSc (environmental studies). This happened through an exchange programme between Yale and Pant’s university in India, a young institution with a formidable reputation.

TERI University, set up as an extension of The Energy Research Institute, rolled out its academic programmes six years ago and unveiled its campus only last year. But students have been going places already. “TERI played a significant role in getting me the right job,” says Pant, who got her degree in 2009. “The rest of my classmates are working with CII, FICCI, Ambuja Cements etc.”

No wonder, 500 applications came in for just 50 seats in environmental science. The university is starting a Master’s programme in sustainable development practice (SDP) from 2010.

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Announcements to invite applications would be made in February for the session starting in July. For this programme, TERI was shortlisted with eight others, chosen from 100-odd universities around the world, and it now partners the Public Health Foundation of India, North Carolina State University and two universities in Japan and UK. The eight others would run this course, too.

Programmes: MSc in environmental studies/ natural or water resources management/ geo-informatics/ plant biotechnology/ infrastructure/ public policy and sustainable development/ climate science and policy/ economics; MTech in renewable energy engineering and management; MBA in infrastructure/ business sustainability and PhD programmes in related areas. MA in sustainable development practice starts in 2010.

Infrastructure: The university building represents an environment-friendly lifestyle. Its architecture, electricity supply and cooling system are designed to consume the least possible amount of energy. Instead of large air-conditioning plants, there are three ‘green’ plants — an earth-air tunnel (for the hostel), thermal mass storage (for classrooms) and variable refrigerant volume (VRV) for labs and the administrative block.

VRV switches off the cooling vents automatically when the room is not occupied; thermal mass storage optimises the air saved at night; and the earth-air tunnel controls the air temperature through two tunnels dug four metres below the surface. You can start or stop the cooling as and when you like. The water used in these plants is recycled and sensors are installed in the washroom taps.

The basement parking gets natural light through glass-covered holes carved into niches in the pathway. In the rooms, too, there is little reliance on artificial lighting.

There are hi-tech biotechnology labs for PhD students at TERI’s Lodhi Road set-up, while Masters’ students can work at the Vasant Kunj campus only. After work, students unwind in the fitness centre or the spacious café. Behind the university building in Vasant Kunj there is an amphitheatre where seminars and talks by students are organised.

Found on campus: “I joined TERI University as it is patronised by Dr (RK) Pachauri, renowned for his work on environment. For environmental studies, this is the best place,” says Nikita Magan, a first-year student in MSc (natural resources management).

Sushant Figueiredo, a first-year student of MSc (environment studies) who came to Delhi from Goa to study at TERI University, has a similarly strong faith in the institution.

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“The hi-tech laboratories and a big library are on the Lodhi Road campus, which is quite far from the university campus in Vasant Kunj. All facilities should be at one address,” says Rochak Katyal (name changed), a PhD student

Factfile
TERI University was constituted in 1998 to expand the scope of the research institute of the same name. It got deemed-to-be-university status in 1999. The research institute collaborated with the university for its studies and programmes, and mutual support for seminars, symposia and conferences. In 2002, doctoral programmes started, followed by Master’s programmes a year later. Earlier, the campus was run from the TERI office in Lodhi Road. The Vasant Kunj campus opened only last year