They are in comparison to their US counterparts, but there can be little doubt the performance parameters for them are a lot less stringent as well.
Gautam Ahuja
Professor, Ross School of Business University of Michigan
“US B-school graduates earn around 0.7 times what their faculty do — in India, this ratio is around 2.4:1. How do you get quality faculty without paying for it?”
If the IITs and the IIMs are to be globally competitive, they need to have a competitive faculty and that means providing competitive conditions including a competitive salary. One should compare their compensation and work environment to those of their foreign counterparts. Also, one has to examine the opportunity cost relative to industry careers.
A fresh assistant professor joining a top-25 US business school would receive a pre-tax salary of about $135,000-$170,000 (Rs 67-85 lakh) plus pension and healthcare — there is no subsidised housing. There are variations within this: Finance faculty are paid more and private schools will pay on the higher end of this band. Against this, the faculty are generally expected to teach 100-150 hours per academic year. They are, however, expected to publish in the top-tier academic journals which have very high rejection rates — failure to meet these publishing standards usually implies that once your probationary period of 5-7 years is over, you are forced to leave the institution (a fairly common occurrence at the top schools). Top European schools provide compensation that is lower than what is given in the US, but since they provide many other benefits through the western European welfare-state model, they still remain competitive.
To attract faculty holding doctorates from good schools, the IIMs and the IITs have to compete in this market. Though one does not have to match dollar for dollar, the numbers should at least be in the same ball park. In India, the Indian School of Business will present significantly more attractive packages; faced with this competition, attracting good PhDs will be very difficult. Of course, the change in compensation is only a part of the overall change required — there is a need for competitive performance standards and stringent performance evaluation. In the absence of a competitive compensation structure, it is not fair to demand competitive research performance from faculty in the Indian schools.
Besides, graduates of US B-schools have median starting salaries of between $80,000-120,000. Thus, the ratio of starting student salary to starting faculty salary is about 0.7 to 0.8. Over time, industry salaries grow faster, but the faculty enjoys consulting opportunities that can significantly supplement their income and, arguably, enjoy a more independent and intellectually stimulating environment. These numbers indicate that in the US and in competitive business schools elsewhere, faculty compensation is not significantly inferior to that of the students whom they teach; indeed at the time of graduation, the faculty are generally much better paid, though the difference reduces and reverses over time (but then other opportunities such as consulting open up). IIM-Ahmedabad data tells us that the average domestic salary during the most recent placement season, even with a slow economy was Rs 17.85 lakh while the average international salary was around $119,000 (Rs 59 lakh). Given that starting salaries for IIM Professors appear to be less than Rs 7-8 lakh per annum, this suggests that in the context of the Indian labour market, becoming an academic is not a very attractive proposition. If you want world-class institutions, you have to pay for them — and develop them with respect to the environment and performance standards as well.
(The author is Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Strategy)
Dinesh Mohan
Volvo Chair Professor and Coordinator TRIPP*, IIT Delhi
“The salaries are fine even when compared to the US where engineering faculty get public sector scales. The quality of work and not just money is what attracts good teachers”
The issue of pay parity is both sensitive and complicated. I have chosen not to participate in the current protest because it is being put out partly as an issue of academic freedom, which is not really the case. At the outset, I would like to clarify that I do believe that all those working for the ‘public good’, which should include IIT faculty members and any other institute of learning, should get the best public sector emoluments and facilities. At the same time, I do not believe that an engineering teacher should get a salary higher than that of those teaching history, literature or music. All these disciplines are essential for healthy development of our society.
The faculty members at the Indian Institutes of Technology actually have more academic freedom than many western universities. In the west, most schools set medium-term academic goals and professors who do not fit them simply have to leave. In India, we do not have rigid plans nor are we bound by any restrictions because no one from outside controls our academic curricula — we can do whatever research we want and teach what we want.
Ever since IITs were established, we have been under the control of archaic conduct rules that prohibit us from publishing articles that “touch upon administrative matters”, and they “shall be free from all political things”. We are prohibited from saying anything that has the “effect of an adverse criticism of any current or recent policy or action of the Institute”, “...or which is capable of embarrassing the relations between the Institute and the Central Government...”. In addition, we are not allowed to invite a foreign academic to give a lecture on campus without permission. There has been no organised protest ever against these restrictions that violate all norms of academic freedom.
There is enough merit in the faculty’s contention that they have contributed towards making IITs a global brand. But, we do choose the best students in India and the government’s subsidy per student in these institutions is very much higher than for those in normal universities. Don’t forget that every teacher in IIT and IIM has an independent office, gets housing and far better equipment than 95 per cent of other university teachers in India. They can also get additional income from consulting, which is entirely their own.
As for comparisons with overseas engineering institutes, it’s not as though a teacher in a western university is paid industrial salaries. Most American or European elite universities, public or private, pay public-sector salaries prevailing in each country to their engineering faculty. We should also not be comparing our salaries with a few BTechs or MBAs who get high-paying jobs. We can compare our salaries only with fresh PhDs in engineering who get a permanent research job including housing. Then we’ll find that we are not so badly off.
Overall, raising salaries won’t necessarily mean that good people will join us — that depends on the quality of work we do and encouragement we provide to young people to join us and stay with us. Research groups in academically elite universities keep a lookout for students completing PhDs and attract them with offers before they complete their degrees. We have to start doing the same if we have to survive in the global competition for knowledge creation.
(*Transport Research and Injury Prevention Programme)
