IITs and IIMs to Go Beyond Technology and Management for World Class Institution Tag?

In order to make the top IITs and IIMs one of the world class institutes, the government of India is trying to come up with various ideas and solutions. One of the recent idea given by the government may even change the face of both the institutes. According to its new plan, the government wants the institutes to go beyond their respective areas of specialization ie. technology and management, in order to admit more students from different streams as well.

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Currently, the institutes are running as institutions of national importance and are situated in various locations across India. The above status of the institutes may also change as they will turn into deemed universities. Arun Jaitley, the finance minister suggested about the same in this year’s budget. However, it is not yet finalized and is under process. The above changes will also require changes in the legislature regarding matters of the authority that will designate the IIMs and IITs. HRD Ministry has released a draft policy on the matter and asked for suggestions.

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According to the draft policy, the institutions, in order to become a World Class Institutions will have to fulfill particular criteria and that too in a specific time frame starting from the date they are declared as World Class Institutions.

As per the criteria, the institutes will have to become multidisciplinary and must provide the students with exceptionally high teaching and research facility.

Prakash Javadekar, HRD minister had asked the top IITs and IIMs to prepare and bid for the world-class institution tag. After this, an IIM professor had declared that till now IIMs have been only been management schools and will remain so in the future.

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Another IIT professor commented that during United Progressive Alliance’s second term (2009-14), the matter to make the IITs multi-disciplinary was raised. However, it did not materialize. At that time the government wanted to improve the global ranking of the institutions.

As per another guideline mentioned in the draft, in order to convert into a full-fledged university, the institutes must have at least “20,000 students over next 15 years”. This means that the institutes must acquire 1,334 students a year. Currently, IIMs have far fewer students than this.

The IIM professor said that in order to make this happen, the institute will have to let more and more students take admissions in the institutions but at the same time make sure that the quality of education is not compromised.

The HRD Ministry has been asked by the prime minister’s office to give complete autonomy to world-class institutions. In case the IIMs and IITs turn into world class institutions, they will have to change the way it is run, their selection process, even their compensation policy.

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Another guideline as per the draft will help turn the institutes into world class institutions as well as improve their global ranking. According to this guideline, the institutes will become more internationalized and will have to include one in four instructors and almost one in three students from overseas.

S.K Das, IIT Ropar director said that many IITs have understood the same and have already started looking for foreign faculty. He confessed that he himself traveled to the US and Canada to offer teaching positions to teachers from those countries.