Sign In
Learn bits
National Importance
Mahesh

04/11/23 06:40 AM IST

The IITs are overcommitted, in crisis

In News
  • The IIT system is in serious trouble at the same time that some of them are building campuses abroad as part of India’s soft power efforts.
  • It is worth taking a careful look at current realities to understand a looming crisis.
Foreign campus
  • A branch campus of IIT-Madras has just opened in Zanzibar and IIT Delhi will be launching programmes from its Abu Dhabi campus in 2024.
  • The tiny first entering class of 70 students has been accepted.
  • The admission standards are not like those at home.
  • Admission is based on the IIT Madras Zanzibar Selection Test (IITMZST) 2023 screening test followed by an interview.
  • Some of the screening test centres offered to potential applicants were located not only in Tanzania but also in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates (which has a strong presence of the Indian diaspora).
  • Initially the Zanzibar campus is offering only two programmes: a Bachelor’s Degree (BS) in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and M. Tech in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
  • They are open to students from across the globe.
  • The annual tuition fee is $12,000 for the BS programme and $4,000 for the M.Tech programme and as noted, only 70 students have signed up.
  • The rules and regulations of the IITM Zanzibar campus will be based on the existing norms of IIT Madras.
IITs at home
  • The first IIT was established in 1950 at Kharagpur in West Bengal, with four more following in a decade.
  • Most of these partnered with top foreign technological universities in the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and Germany to get started, and they quickly achieved both excellence and top reputations.
  • They hired Indians trained at the best foreign universities who were eager to contribute to national development.
  • But these were small institutions — the total student enrolment was about 20,000 in the original six IITs.
  • After 2015, the government expanded the IIT system, adding seven institutions in the following decade, most located away from major metropolitan centres.
  • These new IITs have struggled to meet the high standards of the traditional institutes.
  • Some were created by upgrading existing institutions such as the Indian School of Mines Dhanbad, while others were “greenfield” start-ups.
  • Top professors are often unwilling to work in isolated places, and the best students are also hesitant to enroll. In 2021-22, 361 undergraduate, 3,083 postgraduate and 1,852 PhD seats were empty in the new IITs.
  • There should not be several tiers of IITs, with varying standards and levels of prestige.
Challenges for IIT Madras
  • Are there appropriate laboratories, access to IT, and related amenities?
  • In other words, has IIT-Madras jumped into the international arena too soon — or should it be jumping at all?
  • What are its motivations for this adventure?
  • What is the purpose of this enterprise — to earn funds for the home campus? To expand India’s soft power?
  • And quite important — who is investing the significant sums required to start up a branch campus?
Faculty Challenges
  • At the heart of any academic institution are the professors. Attracting the best and the brightest is increasingly difficult.
  • Salaries are dramatically below international standards.
  • Foreign trained Indians are generally reluctant to return to uncompetitive salaries, often inferior work environments, and more academic bureaucracy.
  • Top Indian talent is increasingly attracted to the burgeoning IT sector, emerging biotech, and related fields — and not to academe — both within India and abroad.
  • There is now a severe shortage of academics in the IIT system. In 2021, out of the 10,881 of the sanctioned posts 4,370 were vacant.
  • Building quality in the new IITs is a significant challenge, and in the long run if this is not done, the prestige of the entire system will suffer.
  • Maintaining faculty quality and attracting young professors committed to the IIT idea and to India’s development are both serious tasks.
  • Expanding the system domestically may not have been a wise idea — and building overseas branch campuses is highly problematical.
  • One might question if overseas expansion is a good idea under any circumstances, but in the context of the domestic challenges facing the system, such expansion seems particularly ill-considered.
Source- The Hindu

More Related Current Affairs View All

20 Nov

ISRO’s GSAT-N2 communication satellite

'Elon Musk-owned Space X successfully launched the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)'s communication satellite GSAT-N2 from Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.'

Read More

20 Nov

Artificial rain in New Delhi

'As the national capital’s air quality continued to be in the ‘severe plus’ category for the third consecutive day, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai wrote to

Read More

20 Nov

Chancay port project in Peru

'Chinese President Xi Jinping inaugurated Peru’s Chancay Port  describing it as the starting point for a “new land-sea corridor between China and Latin America&rdq

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps