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IITs stare at ID change
A central panel tasked with reviewing higher education is considering converting the Indian Institutes of Technology into universities.
The IITs must be converted to help improve the standard of research that is far behind top institutes in the developed world, committee chairman Yash Pal has proposed.
“The IITs are today a little more than undergraduate factories. That needs to change. Transforming them into full- fledged universities is one possible solution, which we are considering,” the former University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman said.
Yash Pal, a physicist, said the proposal had been mooted by him.
The proposal is likely to ruffle feathers in the IITs. The tech schools have traditionally maintained a clear distinction from the country’s university system of education, which they consider inferior.
Two IIT directors said converting the institutes into universities would destroy them. “This proposal is shocking. The state of India’s university system is appalling. The IITs are better only because we are different,” a director said.
The Yash Pal committee was formed by the human resource development ministry in April to review the functioning of the UGC and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
Two years ago, the Prime Minister had expressed concern about the quantity and quality of research in the IITs. The concern stems from the inability of the IITs or other engineering colleges to encourage students to pursue research as a career.
Central universities have traditionally recorded a higher fraction of research scholars to undergraduate students than engineering colleges. The most qualified faculty members at these universities are required to guide research students and teach postgraduate students.
IIT officials privately conceded that the institutes focused almost all their efforts on undergraduate students. The IT boom in the late 1990s that led to a massive expansion in job offers to engineering graduates contributed to the drift away from research, government officials said.
In 2006, 2.3 lakh students graduated from engineering colleges across the country. The same year, just over 1,000 students received PhDs in engineering subjects — a fraction of less than one PhD for every 200 graduates.
The P. Rama Rao committee set up to review the IITs, in its 2004 report said: “Securing employment after a BTech has almost become a cultural feature. The troubling trend has been that a candidate takes to a PhD only when other professional career prospects have been denied to him.”
The proposal ironically comes at a time other engineering institutes and universities are queueing up to be upgraded into IITs.
The Yash Pal committee is expected to submit its final report in April 2009.
More : telegraphindia.com