Six of eight new IITs churned out their first batch this year from makeshift campuses. Business Standard visited five of these to see if they are still catching up
Good growth but brand IIT also helps
When the ministry of human resource development proposed eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in 2007, directors of some of the IITs urged the government to give the institutes some other name, as calling them “IITs” would dilute the brand image of the existing institutes. (Click here for table)
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“I am surely in favour of the government’s idea of creating new quality institutes like the IITs but they should be given a different name so that a different branding can be created,” Ashok Mishra, former director of IIT Bombay, had told Business Standard.
The older IITs, he said, were in a global league and on the rising curve in terms of research and development. "They are a different brand altogether,” he said.
Four years down the line, the fledgling IITs have impressed their mentors with their growth. Though the pace is slow, the mentors reckon, the path being followed will lead to success.
"The new IITs have all done well so far. They are well on their way to becoming Centres of Excellence in education and research. I have no doubt that given time, most of them will be regarded with the same respect," says Surendra Prasad, former director, IIT Delhi.
Prasad recounts that in 2008, it was a Herculean task to set up an entire new system for IIT Ropar, which IIT Delhi mentored.
The physical infrastructure was the first challenge: IIT Delhi hosted IIT Ropar students.
"Needless to say, everything — our time, energy and infrastructure — got divided between the needs of growth of IIT Delhi (which was happening simultaneously) and setting up of IIT Ropar. Although funds were never a problem, putting all these facilities in place in a short time frame, did generate enormous pressures," says Prasad. He is also on the board of governors of IIT Gandhinagar.
All the IITs mentored the new IITs, along with their own expansion plans, which, by the government diktat, was to increase the overall higher education capacity by 54 per cent in line with the new reservation policy.
IIT Bombay, which mentored IIT Gandhinagar, is still providing small administrative support to it. IIT Gandhinagar functions from a makeshift campus within the Vishwakarma Engineering College in Ahmedabad.
"Right now, they (new IITs) are still small. By far, their progress has been impressive," says Devang Khakhar, director, IIT Bombay.
"Getting faculty is a challenge for a place like Ropar but still we have been able to manage well so far," said M K Surana, director, IIT Ropar. IIT Ropar, like its peers — IIT Patna, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Jodhpur, IIT Mandi and IIT Indore — operates from a makeshift campus.
Brand IIT
Despite operating from a makeshift campus or sans enough faculty members, industry players say Brand IIT will keep attracting aspirants.
"What matters at the end of the day is the IIT brand name. When our seniors go out in the job market, no one asks them which IIT are they from. Being an IITian is a matter of pride. New or old is out of the question," said a student from IIT Patna on condition of anonymity.
In 2012, 520,000 students sat for the IIT JEE for about 10,000 engineering seats across India
Navin Tuli, an IIT aspirant in Mumbai, says his only goal is to seek admission into one of the IITs.
"I have been keeping myself updated on the new IITs. While many B.Tech students have got good internship offers and placements, many interested in post graduate studies have got good opportunities with international universities," said Tuli.
This attitude comes through when companies flock to campuses to dole out internships and jobs. State-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation says being IITs, it is certain these institutes would follow a certain standard of education and faculty and thus, are being looked at for hiring.
Ganesh Natarajan, Global CEO of Zensar Technologies, says though the company at present primarily recruits from the older IITs, in future it plans to recruit from the new IITs as well.
"We consider the new IITs on par with the top end of the second-tier engineering institutes. In future, we may recruit from the new IITs for B.Tech," said Natarajan.
Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and HCL — recruiters that have visited the new campuses — for recruitment, did not reply to an email questionnaire.
Ashank Desai,who co-founded Mastek Limited, an information technology solutions and services company, says "I know of a few IITs which have done very well. IIT Jodhpur for instance, has innovative ideas in terms of content and is experimenting with a multi-disciplinary approach. Am sure the other IITs are also doing well." Desai is a member of the IIT Council at IIT Jodhpur.
