IITs facing 34% faculty shortage: What's wrong?
It's not only the increasingly vacant seats at IITs that are a cause of concern for the prestigious institutes. The 23 IITs have a faculty shortage of 34% as of March'18. Only one, IIT-Mandi, has more than the sanctioned strength. It's not just the new ones who are suffering from this issue either; older ones like IIT-Kharagpur and IIT-Kanpur have close to 40% shortage.
IIT-Goa the worst, IIT-Mandi the best
IIT-Goa is facing the worst condition, with 62% shortage of faculty. At 58%, IIT-Bhilai isn't doing much better. Among the top five IITs, Kharagpur has the most vacancies (46%), followed by Kanpur (36%), Delhi (29%), Chennai (28%) and Mumbai (27%). In contrast, IIT-Mandi has four more faculty members than the sanctioned strength.
How did this situation come about?
Ironically, the number of vacancies is increasing along with the number of IITs and requirement of staff. Experts say earlier, 15% IIT graduates would join as faculty, but now, most move abroad or join the private sector for better opportunities. In the newer institutes like Dharwad, there's the problem of luring and persuading faculty to stay in smaller towns.
Can this situation be turned around?
This situation needs corrective measures. Competitive salaries and attractive research opportunities have to be offered to faculty. In smaller towns, attention has to be paid to factors like "availability of schools for their children, access to healthcare and other factors," Education Expert AS Seetharamu said. The HRD Ministry had said it would ease the process for IITs to acquire visas for foreign faculty.
1,200 IIT graduates teaching in colleges in backward regions
Currently, under the Technical Education Quality Improvement Project, over 1,200 selected IIT graduates are teaching in 53 state-run engineering colleges in underprivileged areas across 11 states and UTs for three years.
