MHRD Report: IIM-A & IIT-Gn Facing Shortage of Faculty Members, Institutes Deny
There has been a significant shortage of faculty members at two premier institutes based in Gujarat namely Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IIT-Gn) and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA).
According to a report presented by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development in the regular session of the Lok Sabha last month on 20th March 2017, it was revealed that there has been a significant shortage of faculty members at two premier institutes based in Gujarat namely Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IIT-Gn) and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA).
It stated that IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Gandhinagar has 103 and 90 faculty members respectively as against the approved number of 120 for each institute.
Reacting to these reports, the directors of both the institutes came forward with their thoughts. Professor Ashish Nanda, Director at IIM Ahmedabad said that the projections of MHRD are more of 'notional' and are not supported by proper facts and figures.
On the other hand, Professor Sudheer Jain, Director at IIT-Gn that there must have been a misunderstanding or error in quoting the figures in the report released by MHRD.
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Arguments made by both the institutes:
- As IIM-A primarily focuses on strategic priorities, it requires experienced faculty members at almost all levels of management which is why faculty recruitment is an ongoing process of the institute. The process maintains a high-quality standard as well. The director of the institute added that it has recruited 33 faculty members since January 2013.
- IIT Gandhinagar has over 100 faculty members at present, argued the director of the institute.
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Irrespective of the claims made through the report, both the institutes - IIMA and IIT-Gn continue to be on top of the rankings table. This would not have been the case if the above report was true citing a serious shortage of faculty members at the institutes.
Performance in MHRD Rankings:
- 'Top management institutes' category was ruled by Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad with the first position.
- Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar was at the 30th spot in the category of 'top engineering institutes'.