IIT seats to increase by 60%
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It’s good news for aspirants aiming for the premier IITs (Indian Institute of Technology). The IIT council, in a meeting held recently, has decided to increase the intake of students to the institute by 60% over a period of time. According to the council, the increase would first happen in the seven older IITs at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Guwahati and Roorkee.
The move in expected to improve the earning of the IITs from the fees as well as non-plan grants from the government. The meeting saw other important decisions taking place. Some of them are listed below:
IITs will be made a market brand in India and elsewhere:
Even after establishing a repute for churning out quality graduates, IITs missed out on the brand-building exercise. HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju informed that keeping this fact in mind, the IITs will devise a way on how to improve their brand equity. The IITs could together appoint a chief marketing officer to head this initiative.
More engagement with global rating agencies to improve ranking:
The QS ranking of the world’s top 200 universities did not have a single Indian institution in the list. A separate list of the top 200 Asian institutions had 11 Indian entities, with three in the top 50. IIT-Delhi was at 38, IIT-Bombay at 39, and IIT-Madras ranked 49. The council, thus, decided that the IITs would form a committee comprising administrators and members of the alumni network to engage with ranking agencies such as the UK-based Quacquarelli Symonds and Times Higher Education ranking. A HRD Ministry official said, “They have to give complete details of their programs, research and curricula. If IITs give everything up-to-date their ranking can improve by 50%".
IITs to remain independent of government interference: Council
The IIT Council declared that the IITs would not be reviewed by the National Accreditation Board (NAB). It also decided that the directors of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) would have no say in the appointment of IIT directors any more—both moves designed to reiterate and reinforce the autonomy of the schools. HRD minister Raju, told reporters in New Delhi, that considering IITs are brands, the IIT council decided that their internal review will be given to NAB and it will be accepted as accreditation. However, NAB won’t be able to send its team to assess the IITs.
