IITs' struggle against odds continues

Faculty, funding and lack of best management and governance practices have been plaguing the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) for years on end.

And the story is not showing signs of improvement if the opinions of directors and professors at the Pan IIT meet 2006 in Mumbai is any indication.

For instance, a McKinsey study, initiated in 2001, had emphasised that the IITs and regional engineering colleges (RECs) would require another 5,000 faculty over the next five years.

To date, the need has not been met. IITs need new faculty, their research programmes lag world's leading institutions, their funding is insufficient by world standards, and their management practices and governance is stifling, the McKinsey report had stated.

Surendra Prasad, director, IIT Delhi, admitted that "scaling up the number of students and faculty is still a major concern with IITs. In the next few years, IITs will require twice their faculty strength. We need to recruit at least 70 faculty members every year but we are not able to do so due to the shortage of quality faculty."

In IIT Delhi, of a total faculty strength of 371 in 2000, only 40 new engineering faculty had joined over the last five years under 35 years of age. Of the most experienced faculty, 30 per cent will retire in seven years, the study had indicated.

The study had also suggested that the intake of students should at least be tripled in scale. Against the intake of 7,000 students in IITs in the year 2000, it was suggested that the intake should be increased to 21,000 by 2002.

The total intake of the engineering colleges in India has to increase by well over 1,00,000 per year, it had suggested. Currently, this figure stands at a dismal 10,000.

Next major concern highlighted by the directors was that research in IITs is significantly behind best practices.

Said an IIT Kanpur professor, "The challenge is innovation in academic curriculum. Incorporating research, technology based distance education and a lot of faculty-industry interaction. The doctoral programmes also need expansion."

Concerning this issue, the study had also drawn a comparison between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Stanford School of Engineering and said that while MIT and Stanford receive Rs 110 lakh and Rs 100 lakh respectively, towards research grants every year, IITs receive only Rs 15 lakh.

The directors said that funds are not a problem but government interference is certainly a hurdle. "Money is available, but the IITs cannot get over their procedures to find approved projects to use the money," said an IIT alumnus.

The study had also pointed out that lack of autonomy especially on financial issues and personnel policies is what bothers the directors.

Said an IIT director in the study, "I had to drop out of a conference last year because my clearance from the Ministry did not arrive in time- why should the ministry approve my travel?"

For the IITs, 65 per cent of the funding comes from the government.