Student's corner

Dear Students,  

LAST WEEK WE ASKED:  

Do you think IITs need autonomy?  

BEST RESPONSE

With such a large number of universities in India, it is imperative to assume that controlling them from one office in Delhi must be ineffective. The most successful foreign universities have their own administration controlling themselves. In case of IITs, their own board of governors and academic committees should have autonomy to formulate plans and implement them. But this should all be governed by a basic set of guidelines laid down by the IIT council, in order to maintain uniformity among the IITs. 

- Ridim Agarwal, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI), Ahmedabad.

 OTHER RESPONSES 

Providing autonomy to the IITs would help them think freely and get over their lapses in research outputs. The government should provide autonomy to IITs so that they can think in terms of compensating and providing better remuneration to the faculty which is responsible for moulding the deserving students who join the institute, and make them refined and efficient engineers. While providing autonomy, the government should also think in terms of providing interest-free education loans. This way even a fee hike would not deter the students who aspire to be a part of premier institutes, such as IITs. 

- A Bhuvana Bhimaiah, Alagappa University, Bangalore.

Currently, IITs have both academic and administrative autonomy, but they are financially dependent on the government. The non-planned support of the government should be de-linked from the IITs and they should be asked to raise their own funds. In addition to fee hike, they should be allowed to raise funds through bond issues tapping its alumni network and general public. This would take care of the operational expenses, projects and research.The IITs have played a vital role in catalysing the growth of technical learning in the country. It is time to make them stand up on the global stage. 

- Debashish Banerjee, Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (SIOM), Nashik. 

Autonomy and accountability go hand in hand and without them it is impossible to achieve excellence. But IITs are established by law and they can have only as much autonomy as the law permits. It has to be continually earned as deserved. The better solution is to give more autonomy to the IIT Council. The restrictions imposed by the Ministry of Finance should be removed and the Council should be empowered to take all financial decisions. Problem areas such as number of positions, pay scales, promotion policies, recruitment rules, purchasing rules should all be decided by the IIT Council. 

- Nilaya Mitsah Shanker, Shri Ram Swaroop Memorial College Of Engineering AND Management (SRMCEM), Lucknow.

IITs have made a name for themselves through all these years with constant backing of the government. Pulling away the support can stem their growth as by each IIT becoming an autonomous body will enforce a slew of measures which may not be coherent. It might take the sheen off IITs. Also, since the power of autonomy may also make them responsible for their actions, IITs will often find themselves in a tricky spot of balancing the radical measures and showing respect to taxpayers' money, something which is given a lot of importance in our country. 

- Rahul Gautam, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Delhi. 

One of the most important features of IITs is that they are all autonomous bodies which gives them a lot of freedom to experiment and conduct research. Autonomous institutes have greater responsibility to remain sensitive and alert to take care of the needs of students. They also offer flexibility in academic curricula as well as scope to effect quick changes in teaching, training and tune students to the latest developments and more important subject and skills. A continuous evaluation system promotes tension-free living as the students remain generally more focused on their studies. 

- Ankit Pandya, Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai. 

Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Tuesday evening every week. Please ensure that your response does not increase 150 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name institute's name, year, batch and complete mailing address for your entries to be accepted. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500. 

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Do you think that companies, by launching sector specific courses, can make good the gap between academia and industry?