This year we are thinking of a mentorship programme for the newly joining research scholars. We are open to your suggestions in this regard.
What we have planned till now is, with the insitute scholar admissions round the corner:
There will be 2-3 seniors in each department (the number will be a tenth of the intake or more) who will guide the newcomers. Their contact details can be included right in the offer letter of the scholars. When the scholars land in Kharagpur they will get in touch with one or more mentors of their department who will guide them to complete various formalities and help them to settle in KGP life. The whole thing will be coordinated by the Students' Welfare Group.
As an example, in IIT Kanpur the prospective student is given the schedule of the activities in his/her first day in campus which is very compact and includes all the formalities of opening a bank account to making of the ID card and the whole thing is coordinated by the team of the Counselling centre. Of course we cannot reach to that level of efficiency in one day, but we can start with it since newly admitted research scholars are quite lonely compared to the UG and PG students. I feel this kind of guidance will help them to get acquainted faster to the life of this campus.
The deparment respresentatives (in association with the HoDs) may select the mentor group.
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Abhimanyu Kar
Research Scholar
Gas Dynamics Lab
IIT Kharagpur