Challenges and issues facing the IITs
IIT are globally recognized as the crown jewels in India’s higher education system.
They are often the only Indian higher education institutions known internationally at all.
They have produced leaders in high tech and related fields in India and abroad.
The IITs may be the most difficult higher education institutions to gain entry in the world.
IIT system is in serious trouble at the same time that some of them are building campuses abroad as part of India’s soft power efforts.
It is worth taking a careful look at current realities to understand a looming crisis.
A branch campus of IIT-Madras has just opened in Zanzibar and IIT Delhi will be launching programmes from its Abu Dhabi campus in 2024.
The faculty are from the Chennai campus and will they stay in Zanzibar.
Frequently a problem for branch campuses of western universities.
Admission is based on the IIT Madras Zanzibar Selection Test (IITMZST) 2023 screening test followed by an interview.
Some of the screening test centres offered to potential applicants were located not only in Tanzania but also in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and the UAE.
The Zanzibar campus is open to students from across the globe.
The annual tuition fee is $12,000 for the BS programme and $4,000 for the M.Tech programme.
Reports say that the rules and regulations of the IITM Zanzibar campus will be based on the existing norms of IIT Madras.
The first IIT was established in 1950 at Kharagpur in West Bengal.
They hired Indians trained at the best foreign universities who were eager to contribute to national development.
But these were small institutions — the total student enrolment was about 20,000 in the original six IITs.
After 2015, the government expanded the IIT system, adding seven institutions in the following decade.
These new IITs have struggled to meet the high standards of the traditional institutes.
Some were created by upgrading existing institutions such as the Indian School of Mines Dhanbad, while others were “greenfield” start-ups.
Top professors are often unwilling to work in isolated places.
In 2021-22, 361 undergraduate, 3,083 postgraduate and 1,852 PhD seats were empty in the new IITs.
There should not be several tiers of IITs, with varying standards and levels of prestige.
In all the 23 IITs has expanded to more than 1,20,000, with 25,237 students graduating in 2022-23, a clear indicator of more access and opportunity.
Salaries are dramatically below international standards.
Foreign trained Indians are generally reluctant to return to uncompetitive salaries.
There is now a severe shortage of academics in the IIT system.
In 2021, out of the 10,881 of the sanctioned posts 4,370 were vacant.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the IITs are in crisis.
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