Khabar, IPSA ni

INTERNATIONALIZATION PROCESS OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA AND NEPAL

Since 2020, IPSA has been actively involved as a partner institute in InterNepInd; a European-Asian partnership among Higher Education Institutions in Spain, Portugal, India and Nepal. This program is setup to build, support and share internationalization strategies among its members. It is a step forward in the internationalization of Higher Education Institutions.

“InterNepInd” (https://internepind-eplus.eu/) is a Capacity Building project which aims to support the internationalization process of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in India and Nepal, in order to improve the quality of Higher Education and to promote regional and international cooperation. InterNepInd consortium is integrated by 9 HEIs from Spain, Portugal, India and Nepal, coordinated by Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT, Spain) and integrated by the following partners in addition to IPSA:

• University of Aveiro (UA, Portugal)

• Sarvajanik College of Engineering &Technology

• Nalla Malla Reddy Engineering College

• Vivekanand Education Society Institute of Management

• Shantaben Manubhai Patel School of Studies and Research in Architecture and Interior Design

• Nepal Engineering College

• Sagarmatha Engineering College

The internationalization amongst these institutes will benefit students and faculties. It will promote the process for Double Degrees, Joint PhDs, Joint academic activities including e-learning, Virtual Open Dialogues, Collaborative Projects and Internationalization at home.

IN-CONVERSATION WITH PROF. CHHAYA ON ESSENCE OF HOME

Prof. Chhaya in conversation

Design Studio 4 focuses on the concept of people, place and dwellings. It fosters the sense of community dwelling through elements and its making. Prof. Neelkanth Chhaya is mentoring this studio. He is an eminent architect and academician. He is also associated with various other design schools in India and to generate insightful themes and connotations of dwellings, he delivered a series of presentations and lectures that ground the studio to the essence of home...

The title of lectures are below:

1. What is dwelling?

2. Where do you dwell?

3. Places in the house

4. Transactions across the limit: the inside & the outside

5. The vocabulary, the grammar & prose of a dwelling

6. Ways of speaking

Two programs are offered to the students; one based on the site in Rajkot led by Riddhi Shah and the other in Bhavnagar led by Rupesh Patel and Rushikesh Kotadiya. The site at Rajkot is situated in an urban setting while the one at Bhavnagar is located amidst the historical precinct. Both the programs are running parallel with different approaches and concerns.

INVENTORY OF HISTORICAL BUILDINGS AND SITES OF SAURASHTRA, GUJARAT

The pioneers of IPSA have always recognized and acknowledged the architectural heritage of the region. One of their mission is to document as well as conduct research on the history of the place and learn from its cultural diversity. Since its inception in 2000 the faculties and students have been constantly engaged in this mission as a part of their Related Study Programs or Thesis.

IPSA, recently collaborated with DRONAH Foundation of Gudgaon for preparing an Inventory of Heritage Buildings and Sites of Saurashtra. This inventory is a part of the database being prepared for a research project on Challenges to heritage structures of India by NITI Aayog India. Till date; an inventory of around 400 buildings/sites have been prepared and the list is becoming intense and diverse. Saurashtra is a rich repository of heritage buildings and sites.

The faculty and students’ team at IPSA invoved in preparing the inventory is led by Ar. Riddhi Shah who is deeply interested in history and heritage studies. The current students, alumni and the library staff are actively involved in contributing to this database. We covered Amreli, Bhavnagar Gir-Somnath, Gondal, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Morbi, Porbandar, Rajkot and Surendranagar. These were then classified based on their building typology, ownership status , date of origin and its current use.

This database is being prepared based on primary visits conducted in the past and the knowledge of certain places from secondary resources. It is notable to mention here that the list for Bhavnagar district was prepared by Kumari Brijeshwari Gohil - the Princess of Bhavnagar; Ar. Devdutt Pandya was pivotal in procuring it and Ar. Nishant Machhar shared with the team IPSA. This gesture opens up an avenue for IPSA to collaborate with the individuals from the local authorities and erstwhile Princely States to work in the areas of heritage preservation.