Will take decisions on recruitment, promotion of teachers.
The Centre has finally stepped in to address the faculty crunch in premier educational institutes like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). A committee, constituted by the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) and headed by IIT Kanpur Director S G Dhande, suggested setting up of induction cells in all colleges and universities to address the problem.
The cell will oversee recruitment, performance and promotion of teachers and enhance their motivation levels.“We have suggested that every college and university should have a special provision for recruitment of faculty and that faculty management should be treated as a separate issue as it depends on the recruiting authorities,” said a member of the panel that submitted its interim report to the ministry.
Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal had, in April, constituted another committee headed by Ajit Balakrishnan, founder, chairman & CEO of Rediff.com to address faculty shortage at IIMs. This committee has submitted a separate report to the ministry.
The committee has suggested ways and means to recruiting and retaining faculty members besides paying them on a par with industry standards. According to a member, who did not wish to be named, the committee has suggested ways to increase the number of PhDs, step up quality and quantity of research and attract faculty in areas where there is a dearth of candidates — such as marketing and finance. “This is an interim report and we are examining it. It has recommended setting up of induction cells. Because it is a generic report, we need some more data before reaching a conclusion. It talks about setting up cells in institutes of higher learning but it is in the preliminary stages,” said a ministry official.
At present, some institutes have a dean of faculty affairs who looks into matters related to recruitment. However, salary related issues are not decided by the dean. “We have a dean who looks at all faculty related matters but most of them are peripheral and general policy issues,” said an IIT director.
The approved faculty-student ratio in respect of IITs and IIMs is 1:9. At IIT Kharagpur and IIT Madras, the ratio is 1:13. According to the University Grants Commission (UGC) the student-teacher ratio should be 20 as against the benchmark average of colleges at 27. UGC is considering a ratio of 1:10 for science programmes, and 1:15 for humanities, social sciences and commerce and management courses.
At the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) there are only 2,603 faculty members, against the sanctioned strength of 3,747. The situation in IIMs is no different. There are only 388 faculty members against the sanctioned strength of 468.
“Our faculty strength sometime back was 94 while we needed it to be at least 110. With 1,000-odd students, the faculty-student ratio stands at 1:11,” Samir Barua, director, IIM Ahmedabad had earlier told Business Standard.
With four new IIMs to come up in the first phase (2010-2011), another 250 faculty members would be required. IIMs meet less than 5 per cent of India’s need for management education. They produce qualified faculty for both IIMs and other management institutes. The current faculty-student ratio at IIM Bangalore is 1:13.4, while in IIM Kozhikode it is 1:15. The IIMs recruitment process is as follows: an advertisement for a vacancy is displayed on their website and invite applicants to make a presentation to a class before being interviewed by an expert — an external examiner from outside the respective IIM.
On the global platform, the IIMs offer positions at conferences that are attended by faculty members.
