New IITs face huge faculty shortage

Updated on: Monday, October 04, 2010

Even after three years, the seven new IITs that took off, seemed to have hit doldrums, that of being unable to attract adequate faculty.

By now each of the new educational institution ought to have had 90 teachers, the number of positions sanctioned by the HRD ministry, but none of them has managed to reach full capacity.

Worst of all, most of the new colleges have not even filled up a third of the teaching positions. IIT heads say there has been a "lukewarm response" from the experienced lot of teachers from the domestic private colleges wanting to shift to a centre of excellence.

Moreover, while the new IITs are still operating out of temporary campuses, the situation is worse for the ones that are to come up in Gujarat and in Rajasthan, where state governments have failed to yet zero in on a site for the campuses.

Sources at IIT-Gandhinagar said the government was not very clear on the land allotment issue and the permanent campus would come up only two years after the state handed over the site where the college could come up.

Among the seven new institutes, IIT, Hyderabad has been the top choice for teachers.

Although small in numbers, almost all the faculty in the new IITs are fresh young PhDs, looking at the centres of excellence as springboards for their teaching career.

New IITs face huge faculty shortage

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