Ranked # 1 in the QS World University Rankings 2012-13, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA is acknowledged as the world’s premier higher ed institution for Science, Engineering and Technology Education and Research Founded in 1861 by William Barton Rogers, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is internationally acknowledged as the world’s premier advanced higher education institution for science, engineering and technology education and research. The QS World University Rankings 2012-2013 ranks MIT #1 worldwide, ahead of Cambridge and Harvard universities. The 152-year-old institute’s alumni and faculty include 78 Nobel laureates, 53 National Medal of Science winners, 41 MacArthur Fellows and 27 National Medal of Technology and Innovation winners. A research university whose 1,022 faculty are actively engaged in cutting-edge research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA managed $718.2 million (Rs.3,899 crore) in research expenditure last year and has built an impressive $8 billion (Rs.43,437 crore) endowment corpus. “MIT’s mission statement charges us to ‘advance knowledge,’ and bring it to ‘bear on the world’s great challenges,’ as we educate students in service to humanity. Our faculty, post-docs, students and alumni live out this mission every day — and, remarkably often, they change the world… MIT is a community eager to solve hard problems in service to the nation and the world. Thanks to our students, faculty, staff and 100,000 alumni around the globe, the institute hums with bold ideas and inspired solutions,” says L. Rafael Reif, president of the university, with justifiable pride. Sited in Cambridge (Boston), which also hosts Harvard University, MIT’s five schools of engineering, science, management, humanities, arts and social sciences, and architecture offer a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes. The institute’s 11,189 students have access to hundreds of state-of-the-art labs conducting breakthrough research and development. Moreover for over a decade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA OpenCourseWare (OCW) has been making teaching materials used in its undergraduate and graduate courses available on the worldwide web, free of charge. OCW is not a degree-granting or credits-conferring initiative, but a web-based publication of MIT course materials which educators worldwide can use for curriculum development, and self-learners may draw on for self-study or supplementary use. More recently, MITx — the institute’s interactive learning initiative — offers online versions of MIT courses to learners worldwide. MITx is currently being offered on the free-of-charge edX instructional platform, an online education partnership between MIT and Harvard University. Cambridge. Situated on the eastern seaboard state of Massachusetts, Cambridge (pop. 100,000) combines the attractions of a cosmopolis with the charm of a New England town. Organised around traditional green, tree-lined squares and the grassy banks of the Charles River, and defined by its cobblestone streets and colonial church spires, Cambridge is one of metropolitan Boston’s vital urban centres. Cambridge is a global centre of biotechnology and pharmaceutical corporations, mostly promoted by MIT alumni. Quaint olde world shops, multi-cuisine restaurants, bookstores, cafes, and cavernous music stores line the streets of this academic town. Boston provides an exhilarating academic experience with more than 50 higher ed institutions…
