ISM: Gurukul Marvel of Mining Engineering. Review on Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad

Red bricks of the corridors in main building tell stories of a great mineral technology. Shaping the professionals for mineral, mining, fossil fuel and associated industries, Indian School of Mines is known as the premiere technological & management institution for developing high class dedicated engineers and managers for mineral industry.

Founded in 1926 by then Government of India, Indian School of Mines (ISM) has been rendering its services to nation by cultivating dedicated engineers who impart technical expertise to produce raw materials, minerals and petroleum. The modern ISM not only produces mining and petroleum engineers but it also trains geologists, geophysicists, electronics engineers, mechanical engineers and mineral engineers.

History: The famous Jharia-Raniganj region of coking coal belt conceived a thought in the mind of British Engineers to open an institution that would take care of industrial needs of the richest mineral resource region of India. Indian School of Mines was established in 1926 in the district of Dhanbad (Bihar) that falls now in the new state of Jharkhand. Name of ISM was given to make it on the model of Royal School of Mines London to teach and train Mining Engineering and Geology. Petroleum engineering and Geophysics was included in to curriculum of ISM in 1958. Reward for its outstanding performance towards development of nation comes in the form of autonomy when government of India declared ISM as a deemed university. Since then ISM is functioning as a deemed university.

Location: ISM is located in the northern part of the district Dhanbad in the state of Jharkhand, INDIA. Connected by grand chord of eastern railway and nearest airports of Kolkata and Patna, ISM is easily accessible. A sprawling 88 hectares of green campus with modern and cosmopolitan facilities, this engineering gurukul is a marvel for mining & mineral engineering education.

Courses offered: Following are the courses that are offered at undergraduate and post-graduate levels:

Department Courses offered

Mining Engineering B.Tech, M.Tech, PhD

Petroleum Engineering B.Tech, M.Tech, PhD

Fuel & Mineral Engineering B.Tech, M.Tech, PhD

Mechanical & Mining Machinery Engineering B.Tech, M.Tech, PhD

Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering B.Tech, M.Tech, PhD

Computer science and Engineering B.Tech, M.Tech, PhD

Applied Geology MSc Tech, M.Tech, PhD

Applied Geophysics MSc Tech, M.Tech, PhD

Management Studies MBA, M.Tech, PhD

Centre of Mining Environment M.Tech, PhD

Admission and Entrance: There are total 437 seats at under graduate level for different B.Tech programs. 325 seats among 437 are for general candidates and rest is reserved in other categories as per government of India rules. Admission is taken from the merit list of joint entrance examination (JEE) conducted by IIT every year. For Post-graduate admission, ISM itself conducts entrance examination. NRI and foreign students do not require appearing in the entrance exam. They can get admission by depositing the requisite fee prescribed by government of India for various courses.

Curriculum: All under graduate courses of B.Tech comprise a total eight-semester (4 Years course). Quality of training & education is kept very high. Interactive but stringent campus rules assure the quality education. Group discussions, extra curricular activities and debates are the part of necessary curriculum. Class tests and sudden interviews are the mode of testing student about their preparation and studies.

ISM has included Electronics engineering and computer science & engineering to wide its horizon of education. Faculty of management studies was also incepted to offer the best education for budding managers. ISM has a grading system of 5.00 on the pattern of Royal school of Mines. It awards first class to a student who manages to get minimum 70% marks. These quality and dedication standards make ISM a great institution.

Faculty: Teachers and researchers in ISM are well known personalities in their respective fields. They teach and practice with the latest technological development.

Alumni: Alumni of ISM are rendering their services to top companies with superb rapport. They are placed in the organizations like British gas, D Beers, Halliburton, Schlumberger, ACC Cement, DRDO, SAIL, CIL, Infosys, cairn Energy, TATA Motors, TELCON, NMDC, HCL, NTPC, Reliance, Atlas Copco and HOI etc. Placement of ISM from campus goes from 90 to 100%.

Campus Life: At a time it was an institution of Boys only as Mining engineering does not recommend girls. After inclusion of MBA and other branches of engineering girls can be seen in the campus. ISM has a very unique and honest relationship between its alumni. They do reunion in every major city whereever they live. Their very emotional bond gives an edged over any similar institution.

© Dhyanendra M Tripathi 2004