International Workshop
N. Soundararajan, Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, addressing participants of an international workshop on research methodology at Avinashilingam University for Women in Coimbatore recently. India is nowhere on the list of countries excelling in research, N. Sundararajan, Professor, School of EEE, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, said here on Friday. Inaugurating a two-day international workshop on “Research Methodologies and Techniques” organised by the Department of Computer Science at Avinashilingam University for Women, he lamented that the quality of research in India was not up to international standards. “The U.S. leads in the field of technical publications. China stands second.
Ten years ago China was way behind in research. Today, they have reached the Number 2 position for the number of technical publications. It has been a tremendous growth,” Mr. Sundararajan said. The institutions of higher education do not concentrate so much on research as they do on teaching. “But, now most of the universities have introduced research methodology as a compulsory subject. But, research cannot be taught. Research skills should be developed.”
“Our teachers are very good in teaching. But, they are not good researchers. Research should be given more importance,” Mr. Sundararajan said. He spoke to the participants on research preparation and planning, research ethics, academic writing and oral presentations. T.K. Shanmuganandam, Chancellor of the university, and G. Padmavathi, Head of the department of computer science, spoke.
