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The campus at IIT Jodhpur
More IITs & IIMs? How about fixing the old ones first?
0The NDA government’s announcement about the setting up of five new IITs and IIMs each has largely been welcomed by experts considering the need for quality technical educational facilities. The experts, however, have pointed out that several of the IIMs and eight new IITs set up in 2008-09 are struggling for lack of faculty and infrastructure.
Years after their establishment, the new IITs at Gandhinagar, Ropar, Jodhpur, Hyderabad, Indore, Mandi, Bhubaneswar and Patna are functioning on temporary campuses because either land or funds is not available to them.
Finance
Also, there is the issue of finances – establishing one IIT costs Rs 1,750 crore while it is Rs 1,000 crore in case of an IIM.
Although Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allocated a total of Rs 7,138.97 crore for technical education, only an initial allocation of Rs 500 crore was made for the five new IITs in Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and the five new IIMs in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Orissa and Maharashtra.
Of the seven new IIMs established between 2007 and 2011, authorities recently found that those at Rohtak, Ranchi and Udaipur were facing infrastructure-related problems. Experts say there is an urgent need to allocate more funds for the eight IITs set up during 2008-09 as well as the five new IITs proposed by the Finance Minister if they are to perform to their full potential and maintain high standards of quality.
Hallowed portals? – the entrance at IIT, Hyderabad campus
SINGLE STOREY FOR IIM-UDAIPUR
Established as an autonomous body in 2011, the IIM-Udaipur continues to function from its ‘temporary campus’ which is nothing but a single storey building of the Mohan Lal Sukhadia University in Udaipur.
This institute took two years to come into existence after 2009 when the Centre decided to start seven new IIMs. It started its Post Graduate Programme (PGP) with 57 students as also the PGPX programme (for candidates with work experience) ) with 16 students.
It is likely to shift to its own campus in 2016. Though of the sanctioned faculty strength of 22 it has 20 members but Shah maintained it did not pose any problem as the institute was able to keep the teacher-student ratio as 1:12. The institute has 240 students.
Faculty brain drain plagues IIT-Jodhpur
IIT-Jodphur that has already been grappling with the problems due to absence of its own campus and other disadvantages of a new IIT like lack of infrastructure and poor faculty strength seems to have miserably failed to retain its faculty.
During the past four years it has lost around 30 faculty members, including half a dozen during the past six months. Against the sanctioned faculty strength of 90 it has only 55. The institute has failed to identify the reasons for exodus of the faculty despite its Board of Governors sought a detailed report.
The campus at IIT Jodhpur
A senior faculty member told Mail Today that of late the management’s attitude towards the faculty had become rude and insensitive forcing the teachers to look for alternatives. “In fact it (management) has started taking the faculty members for granted”, he added.
Initially though it had guest faculty, but with the passage of time it has been discontinued. The visiting faculty too is limited to two or three. IIT Jodhpur that began its first academic session six years ago still operates from its transit campus of 10 classrooms in a portion of city’s Mugneeram Bangur Memorial (MBM) Engineering College.
IIT-Patna still in transit
IIT-Patna was set up in 2008, but it continues to run from its transit campus located at Patliputra Colony in Patna.
Though the Bihar government had allocated 536 acres for establishing its permanent campus at Bihta, about 30 kilometres from the state capital, the institution is still waiting for its own premises to be completed. As a result, the institution remains plagued with problems such as lack of proper infrastructure, faculty crunch and average placement records.
IIT-Patna was established in 2008 but is facing infrastructure issues, as it continues to run from its transit campus located at Patliputra Colony. The institute does not have enough space for classrooms, laboratories, libraries, sporting facilities and even hostels on the makeshift campus.
The institue at present has three schools – School of Engineering, School of Basic Sciences and the School of Humanities.
Notwithstanding limitations, the institute has developed modern facilities to run the B.Tech and M.Tech courses apart from the Ph.D programmes.
The IIT-Patna has at present 533 students enrolled in its B.Tech programmes, 85 in M.Tech and 140 Ph.D students. Currently, it has 81 faculty members.
IIT and IIM Indore beat the odds
Indore boasts of two premiere higher education institutions – IIM and IIT. The two institutes are doing fairly well in meeting the challenges to equip and nurture the bright talents.
After its inception in 2009, IIT-Indore celebrated its first graduation ceremony last month with 101 students passing out with B.Tech degree. President Pranab Mukherjee had attended the landmark event of the institute.
But IIM Indore has lately been in news for wrong reasons. IIT-Indore was established in 2009 and IIM-Indore was established in 1997. The two institutes are doing fairly well in meeting the challenges to equip and nurture bright talent.
In January, M.N. Buch – a close associate of former director of IIM Indore Prof N. Ravichandran – resigned from Board of Governors of the institute after Rishikesha T. Krishnan was appointed as new director.
Adapted from article in dailymail.co.uk. Click this link for the complete article.