Thapar University

Overview

Thapar University

Thapar University is a private research university in Patiala, India. Presently known as Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (TIET), the university was founded in 1956 by business tycoon Karam Chand Thapar. It is affiliated with several academic institutions, including the University Grants Commission of India. Thapar is also regarded as one of the premier and oldest institutions for higher learning in the country.

Thapar University Key Statistics

The university's educational structure is organized into seven schools. These include the School of Humanities & Social Sciences, the School of Physics & Materials Science, the L.M. Thapar School of Management, and the School of Energy and Environment. It offers undergraduate and graduate courses in various learning fields, including business, liberal arts, physics, and mathematics.

Thapar University has more than 11,000 undergraduates and postgraduates. It employs over 500 academic and administrative staff members who ensure students achieve their learning goals and objectives across its two campuses. These campuses are the Patiala campus and the Derra Bassi campus in the bustling Mohali District.

Other Thapar University key statistics are its dynamic educational facilities that include study spaces, student accommodation, gyms, dining halls, and a library. The Central Library maintains a collection of more than 80,000 physical books, electronic books, magazines, journals, subject guides, foreign and local periodicals, literature, old newspapers, and research databases.

Thapar University Research

The university collaborates with industry leaders and national and international organizations to deliver high-quality research outputs consistently. Thapar research teams are funded by grants and fellowships generated from the University Grants Commission, the Indian Council Technical Education, and the Department of Science and Technology. They also collaborate with multiple universities worldwide, including Tel Aviv University and Trinity College Dublin.

It has conducted extensive research in multiple subject areas but it is widely recognized for its contributions in computer science, materials science, and computer network. Thapar University researchers have also attended global research conferences and symposiums such as SOCO: Soft Computing, GLOBECOM: Global Communications Conference, and NDSS: Network and Distributed System Security Symposium.

Thapar's most cited research output publication is Biggs and Tang’s (1999) reference book, “Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does,” which has been cited 21,760 times. Meanwhile, its second most popular output is Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff’s (2000) “The dynamics of innovation: From national systems and ‘mode’ 2 to a triple helix of university-industry-government relations," which was published in Research Policy and has 10,924 citations to date.

In addition, its third most popular publication is Biggs and Tang’s (1999) “Teaching for Quality Learning at University.” This publication, which outlines numerous teaching techniques academic instructors have to implement in real-life settings to enhance the quality of student learning at universities, has so far been cited by students and researchers worldwide 10,498 times.

Other most cited Thapar University research outputs include Laurillard (1993) “Rethinking University Teaching: A Conversational Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies” (8,854 citations) and Slaughter and Leslie (1997) “Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University (7,672 citations).