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Vision in Motion - a Message from the VC

Over the last three years, BITS Pilani has moved ahead with a clear sense of direction. We have tried to strengthen the institution across excellence, equity, and expansion, but always with one larger objective in mind, namely, to build a university that is more relevant, more inclusive, and more future-ready.

The real work of institution building lies in strengthening the foundations.

One area that has needed serious attention is student living. For too long, many Indian institutions treated hostels as an afterthought, even though they are central to the educational experience. At BITS Pilani, we have recognised this gap and have begun addressing it more seriously. This remains work in progress. Students are right to expect better, and we are not where we need to be yet. New best in class maintenance and service agencies are being brought on board this summer, along with continued hostel renovations, air conditioning rollout, and electrical upgradation across campuses. If we want to build a world class residential university, we cannot ignore how students live. Improving student life is not peripheral to education. It is part of education itself.

The second major area of change is academics. A major curriculum revision is now underway across programmes. This is not about cosmetic changes. It is about rethinking content, sequencing, flexibility, and relevance. Many of our programmes need stronger foundations, greater contemporary relevance, and much more room for interdisciplinary learning. They also need to respond to the reality that AI will increasingly become part of every domain. AI literacy will soon be as basic as mathematics, computing, or communication skills in many professions. The curriculum has to reflect that shift in a serious way, not through a few electives at the margins, but through a deeper redesign of how students are prepared for the future.

The Practice School model, one of the defining strengths of BITS Pilani for decades, is also being reimagined. The objective is not just internships, but stronger experiential learning. Students should have more opportunities to work on real problems, engage with industry, participate in research, and build through doing. Learning by doing has always been central to BITS Pilani, and we now need to take it to a much higher level.

Alongside this, we are creating many more undergraduate research opportunities. Students should not have to wait until a PhD to experience the excitement of research. The undergraduate years themselves should offer opportunities for design, experimentation, prototyping, and inquiry. A future ready university cannot separate teaching, research, and innovation into watertight compartments. Students learn best when they see knowledge in action.

This broader transformation is visible in several other institutional initiatives as well. We have added new undergraduate programmes in areas such as AI, Mathematics and Computing, Environmental Engineering, and Pharmaceutical Engineering. Our global pathways have expanded with strong international university partners. PhD student strength has grown to more than 2600 and is expected to cross 3000 this year. More than 300 startups have been incubated in the last three years.

The same approach extends to research and innovation. We have expanded our focus on interdisciplinary areas, strengthened our research centers, improved support for startups and entrepreneurship, and built stronger engagement with industry. New initiatives in semiconductors, sustainability, defence, AI, and digital technologies reflect where the future is headed and where BITS Pilani must play a leadership role.

Research funding too has grown strongly. Over the last three years, we have secured over Rs 90 crore per year on average in extramural research funding, up from an earlier level of around Rs 30 crore per year. Our faculty now publish over 3000 papers every year, with an average impact factor of over 4.1. Patent activity has also increased sharply, with patents filed and granted now crossing 200 every year, nearly five times the level of three years ago.

We have also recruited 269 high quality faculty, expanded academic access, enabled greater inter campus mobility, and strengthened our lifelong learning footprint through a significant expansion of our Work Integrated Learning Programmes, a pioneering initiative that BITS Pilani began in 1979, and through the launch of new digital offerings under BITS Digital last year. All of this points to one larger shift. BITS Pilani is not trying merely to add scale. It is trying to add relevance.

What is equally important is that this growth has not come at the cost of inclusion. The tuition blind admissions model for the top 500 BITSAT rankers reflects a serious commitment to equity. We will continue to expand this model. A 100 million dollar endowment initiative, with 45 million dollars already pledged, shows that alumni and well wishers are willing to invest in an institution that demonstrates credibility and ambition. Alumni giving itself has grown from Rs 32 crore to Rs 80 crore in just three years. New initiatives around student wellbeing, inter campus mobility, and expanded academic access reflect a more humane and flexible view of what a modern university should look like.

The outcomes of this broader effort are now beginning to show externally as well. In the NIRF university category, BITS Pilani has moved from rank 20 in 2023 to 7 in 2025. In engineering, it has moved from 25 to 11 over the same period. In pharmacy, it has moved from 3rd in India to 2nd. On the global side, pharmacy and pharmacology at BITS Pilani is now ranked No. 1 in India and No. 45 globally in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026. BITS Pilani is also now among the top 250 institutions in the world in Engineering and Technology.

These are not just numbers to celebrate. They are indicators that the academic and institutional strengthening underway across the system is beginning to reflect externally as well.

None of this happens in isolation. BITS Pilani has been fortunate to receive unwavering support from our Chancellor, Shri Kumar Mangalam Birla, whose commitment to the institution has been a source of strength. It has also required the collective effort of the leadership team across campuses, our faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Institution building is always a shared journey.

That, finally, is the larger point. Institutions do not transform through vision alone. They transform when vision is backed by execution, when student experience improves alongside academic ambition, and when growth is anchored in purpose. That is the direction in which BITS Pilani is moving. Much still remains to be done, but the direction is right, and the outcomes are beginning to speak for themselves.

- Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao
Group Vice Chancellor