New Delhi: The great Indian IIT dream will be realised by more students in the coming years, at least by 2020. This is good news for students aspiring to study in any IITs. Now the government is gearing to hike the student intake capacity by more than 20% by 2020.
The current student strength in Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is 82,604 (Eighty two thousand six hundred four). The total strength includes all courses including BTech, MTech, PhD, Integrated Degree courses, etc. The IIT Council in its 50th Meeting held on 23 August 2016 approved in-principle, the proposal for increasing the overall student’s strength in the IITs to one lakh by the year 2020.
Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of State (HRD), today gave this information in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question. In a bid to fill up the vacant faculty positions, IITs are taking various measures, added the Minister.
The minister said that arising of vacancies and filling them up with suitable, qualified candidates is a continuous process. The IITs have been taking measures to attract quality faculty, which include year-round open advertisements, invitation through search-cum-selection procedures to alumni/scientists/faculty, advertisements in international journals, and appointment of NRIs and PIOs to faculty positions on the same terms as applicable to regular faculty.
In addition, Institutes are engaging contract, adjunct and visiting faculty. The Government has also launched the Global Initiative for Academic Networks (GIAN) to enable foreign faculty to teach some courses in the higher educational institutions. Initiatives such as outstanding young faculty awards, mobility of faculty from one Central Educational Institute to another, and pay parity to faculty have also been taken to woo best faculty in these Institutions.
Dr Pandey confirmed that there is no adverse effect on studies in the institutes due to shortage of faculty, as the same is adequately compensated by the research scholars, contract, adjunct and visiting faculty.
Here it can be mentioned that total there are 23 IITs now across India. Out of these 23, four new IITs have commenced their first academic year from 2016-17: IIT Goa, IIT Bhilai (Chattishgarh), IIT Jammu (Jammu & Kashmir), and IIT Dharwad (Karnataka). The total number seats offered by all IITs under BTech degree, the flagship course of IITs, stood at 10,572 for the academic year 2016-17.
