Can IITs stand on their own by 2030: Prakash Javadekar at IIT Delhi

NEW DELHI: During his maiden visit to an

Indian Institute of Technology

on Friday, the deans and directors of IIT-Delhi tried to impress upon the new

HRD

Minister Prakash Javadekar their concern about “decreasing grants” from MHRD.

IIT-Delhi has 523 teachers (including emeritus professors and others) against 776 posts; they’ll need an estimated Rs 1,000 crore to finance the expansion of infrastructure, for good housing, libraries and laboratories; they’ll need support for research. Saying, “Don’t look toward us,” Javadekar encouraged them to create a “road-map” that’ll let IITs “stand on their own by 2030.”

In separate sessions, Javadekar interacted with faculty members and students – many of them PhD students still on campus during vacations. They, too, raised the issue of funds, with one -- Munish Joseph from the Department of Management Studies -- saying outright that the government “should improve quality of the IITs instead of increasing their number.”

“If you can’t fund, don’t start new IITs. Don’t raise funds from students,” he said. He also pointed out that the fee-hike may be offset by loans for the college years but youngsters are now graduating “with huge debt burden.”

“There are no jobs befitting our degrees. Private universities pay paltry sums,” complained PhD student Asmita Sharma. “I am reviewing the situation in the IITs... About 40% positions are vacant so your batch and the next need not worry,” replied Javadekar. However, another student demanded that government institutions be allowed to recruit directly from IITs.

Students and teachers spoke of the coaching industry. Javadekar said he believes IIT-PAL, the online tutoring scheme for school kids, will weaken the coaching industry’s grip on the engineering aspirant within a few years. IIT-Delhi will start recording for the programme soon. “We’ve met Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers. They’re not confident about teaching the JEE curriculum but want to partner with us,” says IIT-D director, V Ramgopal Rao. There was a demand for expansion of counselling facilities as well.

Rao points out that the government’s quality improvement programme for engineering is too small in scale to be effective and MHA regulations deter appointment of foreign faculty. Deputy director, M Balakrishnan “requested” that “files on visitor nominees” be cleared. In turn, Javadekar wanted to know what the IITs can do "to create the passion to be good teachers"; to "stand on their own by 2030" and "develop business-academic partnerships"; and create news ideas "for the way we teach."

Opinion is divided on awarding credits for massively open online courses (MOOCs). One teacher believes “we’re moving too fast.” “We need to think about how exams will be conducted.” Another pointed out that MOOCs are no solution for the problem of access. “Those taking online courses can’t walk down the corridor with me, don’t get to work with machines. Learning is not through the lecture-room only,” he said.

Several teachers resisted the idea of a self-financed IIT system. Speaking in general about the education system, Javadekar said that "there's no accountability but there's protection." IIT-Delhi is trying to raise funds from its alumni -- according to Javadekar, they collectively handle one trillion dollars worth of investment -- and corporations but Balakrishnan said that “research programmes have to be funded by society.”

“Everywhere in the university system – even abroad – research is sustained by society. If research depends on industry alone, somebody else will define the programme,” he says. Adding to the “public-private debate”, Ravinder Kaur from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, argues that it is important “to maintain the public nature of these institutions for their autonomy and independence.” Javadekar’s committed Rs 1,000 crore to IMPRINT, a research initiative just for the IITs and Indian Institute of Science; Rs 280 crore to Uchchatar Avishkar Yojana and Rs 800 crore for startups and incubation centres. He said he's a "product of the students movement" and will return to IIT often.