Panaji: The directorate of higher education (DHE) has launched a programme to improve the quality of undergraduate projects and postgraduate dissertations by connecting students with 40 research mentors from institutions including NCPOR, IIT Goa, BITS Pilani–Goa Campus, GIM and Goa University.The initiative, PRAYoG — Promoting Research Among Youth of Goa — was introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s emphasis on integrating research into higher education, said director of higher education Bhushan Savoikar.The programme will connect students and teachers with researchers through a structured, three-phase mentoring programme.“This govt of Goa programme is aimed at creating stronger research culture among students and higher education institutions. It will connect students and teachers with experienced researchers and provide them with opportunities to develop quality research skills. With 40 expert mentors, discipline-specific assignments, participation of project guides and continuous mentoring, PRAYoG will strengthen research at the grassroots level of higher education,” said Savoikar.The programme aims to ensure students undertake projects that go beyond fulfilling an academic requirement by learning to identify research problems, frame questions, conduct systematic research and, where possible, produce work that can lead to further research or publication.“Every college gets the right mentor for its research needs. A key strength of PRAYoG is its discipline-specific mentoring approach. Research needs are different for students of arts, science, commerce, engineering, social sciences and other disciplines. Therefore, a common research training programme may not always be sufficient for helping students select meaningful and workable research topics,” said state-level coordinator Mahesh S Majik.Unlike a one-day training programme, PRAYoG will provide mentoring throughout the academic year. The first phase, underway until Sep 2, covers identifying research problems, topic selection, literature review, formulation of objectives and hypotheses, research ethics and academic integrity, said Vithal Tilvi, who is coordinating the programme with Arjun Morajkar and Ashish Salvi.Subsequent phases will cover research methods, data collection, analysis, interpretation and proposal development. “The objective is to help students move beyond simply ‘completing a project’ to ‘doing quality research’,” said Tilvi.Project guides and teachers will also participate in mentoring sessions and interact with assigned research mentors.“Every student may not become a researcher, but research skills are useful in almost every profession,” said Tilvi.The DHE has established research and development (R&D) cells at all higher education institutions (HEIs) in Goa, through which PRAYoG is being implemented.
