IIT council meeting on Jan 22

Updated on: Saturday, January 22, 2011

Creation of an 'open access institutional repository' for IITs and making the selection process of IIT directors more broad-based are among key issues to be discussed at the IIT council meeting here tomorrow.

The Anil Kakodkar Committee report to suggest a roadmap for IIT autonomy, the T Ramasami Committee report to assess examination and admission system in engineering programmes and Prof Dhande Committee report on a uniform criteria for promoting students from one semester to the next would also be taken up, officials said.

The meeting, chaired by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, would discuss the possibility of having institutional repositories for IITs which are basically digital collections of the
outputs created within a university or research institution.
The primary type of content in repositories is the peer-reviewed journal literature.

IITs contend that there are several positive aspects of having such repositories.

"A collection of the journal articles published from an institution and accessed through web gives the institution's research programme worldwide visibility and increases its impact," said one of the IIT directors.

Individual authors also enjoy the same increased visibility for their work, he said.

Such repositories not only open up the outputs of the university to the world but also maximise the visibility and impact of these outputs as a result.

It also supports student endeavours, providing access to theses and dissertations and a location for the development of e-portfolios, the director said.

At present there are almost 1300 repositories around the world, which could be accessed through google or other search engines.

The Council will also deliberate on involving more stakeholders in appointment of IIT directors including advertisements in the media.

Advertisements in papers and through the website of the Council would help give wide publicity and generate better response for the post of Director of IIT, said an official of the HRD Ministry.

Letters would also be addressed to various eminent persons requesting them to suggest names, the official said.

The names would then be screened by a search committee headed by the HRD Minister as is the standard practice and then placed before the visitor (the President) for final approval.

IIT council meeting on Jan 22

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