IITs show what sharing faculty is all about

The government appears to have hit upon a novel faculty-sharing solution to tackle the shortage of quality faculty at the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

The shortage will accentuate now that eight new IITs have been announced.

The ministry of human resource development under Arjun Singh is understood to have approached the directors at these institutes, exhorting them to not only mentor the new IITs but also take additional charge of the new institutes initially.

A similar plan may be later laid out for the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) too.

The plan for IITs envisages that professors from the IITs in Delhi, Kanpur and Madras will mentor students at the new IITs in Rajasthan, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, respectively, by shuttling to-and-fro and taking classes at both the institutes.

While one of the directors at these IITs, on condition of anonymity, confirmed the development, he also added: "The HRD Ministry did discuss its plans with us but we have not got any written communication from the ministry in this regard."

Last week, the HRD ministry announced the locations of eight new IITs and seven new IIMS. However, they have to first scale the faculty hurdle. "These institutes could be started in a temporary building, like that of IIM Shillong. But finding faculty is the biggest hurdle," said a Planning Commission member.

To begin operations, every IIT would require at least 50 whereas every IIM would require at least 20 faculty members.

The faculty crunch at IITs and IIMs is already acute. The seven existing IITs have 2,630 faculty members, according to the HRD ministry). It's estimated that they IITs require 3,500 to maintain their teaching standards. The situation at IIMs is little better.