IUCAA-NCRA Graduate School

The IUCAA-NCRA Graduate School (conducted jointly with the TIFR-National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), Pune) is meant for the Ph.D. students of IUCAA and NCRA. Coursework is divided into two semesters spread over one year. Each semester is of roughly fifteen weeks’ duration split into two halves. Students are taught courses in astronomy and astrophysics.

The course structure can be found here.

* Please note that not all elective courses may be offered in a given academic year.

+  Project work will be undertaken in the last two months of the second semester.

Syllabus

The courses are designed, emphasizing the aspects which are directly relevant to Astronomy and Astrophysics. It is assumed that unnecessary repetition of material which is already taught at M.Sc. is avoided. While selecting students for IUCAA/NCRA we usually ensure that the student is familiar with physics at the level of M.Sc. and there is no need for routine material to be repeated in the graduate course.

The syllabus provides enough avenues for topics which are of "local interest" to be included in the graduate school. This is necessary so that graduate students coming out of IUCAA/NCRA not only have a comprehensive grasp of Astronomy and Astrophysics but are also aware of the key research areas in which these two institutions are concentrating at present.

The detailed syllabus for each course can be found here.

Grading System :

Marks out of 100
< 41 1 - 50 51 - 60 61 - 70 71 - 80 81 - 90 91 - 100
C B Minus B B Plus A Minus A A Plus
 
  1. Any Research Scholar getting less than 41 % marks (grade C) fails the course.
  2. Any Research Scholar can get only two Cs (less than 41 % marks) overall.
  3. If any Research Scholar gets three or more Cs overall, then he/she will be asked to leave the Graduate School.
  4. At the end of the Graduate School, the overall performance should be B+ (65%) or above.
  5. Any Research Scholar satisfactorily fulfils all the above norms is said to clear the Graduate School successfully.
  6. All Research Scholars must clear all core Graduate School courses before they submit their thesis to the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
  7. All Research Scholars must complete at least 2 elective credits (usually one course) by the end of the second year.
  8. All Indian Research Scholars should pass the CSIR/UGC NET JRF (or at least Lecturership (LS)) within two years of joining IUCAA.