New IITs or top NITs?

New IITs hit by poor infrastructure: Sibal

PTI, Jan 18, 2011, 08.21pm IST

HYDERABAD: The eight new IITs that were permitted to set up in 2008 do not have the necessary infrastructure and are not up to the mark making it difficult for the country’s prestigious institutions to retain faculty, said Kapil Sibal, minister for HRD, science and technology and telecom here on Tuesday.

The minister blamed the state governments for not allotting the required land for setting up permanent campuses for these institutions.

“These new IITs are functioning in temporary campuses and unable to attract new faculties. Due to the same reason we are finding it difficult to retain faculties. We need commitment from state governments for at least 500 acres of land without any liabilities attached to it,” Sibal said on the sidelines of Geospatial World Forum which began here on Tuesday.

The ministry started these new IITs (Indian Institute of Technologies)three years ago. Each institution should have at least 90 teachers from all disciplines. According to reports most of the institutions do not have the required number of teaching staff.

According to the minister, these new IITs are yet to get permanent campuses. In some states like Andhra Pradesh, where land has been allotted, building and other infrastructure is not in place yet.

Sibal said the ministry is holding talks with respective state governments on the issue of land allocation.

“It is not only the IITs which are suffering. Even the new central universities announced by the Centre are finding it difficult to get land in states,” Sibal told reporters.
Read more: New IITs hit by poor infrastructure: Sibal – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/New-IITs-hit-by-poor-infrastructure-Sibal-/articleshow/7313436.cms#ixzz1BPtTyJGf

New IITs hit by teacher shortage

Hemali Chhapia, TNN, Oct 4, 2010, 03.25am IST

MUMBAI: Three years after seven new IITs got off the ground, they have hit a stumbling block, that of being unable to attract enough faculty. Each new tech school ought to have had 90 teachers by now, the number of positions sanctioned by the HRD ministry, but none of them has managed to reach full capacity.

Worse, most of the new colleges have not even filled up a third of the teaching positions. Young bright PhD fellows looking at teaching opportunities have, naturally, preferred to join the more established institutes over the latter entrants. 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. A recent reality check conducted by the HRD ministry revealed that most of the IITs, except two, had set 2011-12 as a deadline to move to the permanent campus.

Sources in 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.

“We must now concentrate on hiring some good faculty,” said a senior faculty from IIT, Mandi. Among the seven new institutes, IIT, Hyderabad has been the top choice for teachers. Director U B Desai accounts this to the institute’s location. “Hyderabad is a place many people want to come to. It’s no loger a Tier-II city. Also, we have placed a lot of emphasis on faculty recruitment. We have recruited some dynamic youngsters, one faculty has joined at the professor level and he is heading the civil engineering department,” said Desai.

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

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/New-IITs-hit-by-teacher-shortage/articleshow/6680577.cms

Update Dec 7, 2009

One of my blog reader from Kuwait has asked my opinion if he should choose new IITs or one of 3 top NIT as he is expecting JEE/AIEEE ranking around 3000. He also plans to apply thru’ DASA scheme for NRIs if he can get very high PCM in CBSE XII.

The query took me by surprise; as it was not a question to be asked in our times; but everything has changed with a new national craze to create more new IITs/IIMs/NITs/AIIMS (now I can even expect a query like this – Should I join IIM-Shilong or IMT-Ghaziabad?)

Here are few facts about new IITs and ‘old NITs’ to make the decision making simpler:

1) First, let’s have the look at the closing ranks of the new IITs and top NIT/IIITs. Ask any reputed JEE coaching institute faculty and they would promptly say that the JEE and AIEEE ranks are quite proportionate and a person with AIEEE 3000 is supposed to get JEE 3300-3500. With this perspective in mind, following are the closing ranks for the institute’s best branches on offer in 2009

New IITs
IIT-Patna: closing rank 4299 (CSE)
IIT-Kota: 3192 (CSE)
IIT-Ropar: 3296 (CSE)
IIT Ghandinagar: 3195 (Elec)
IIT Bhuvaneshwar: 3343 (Elec)
(IIT Hyderbad not included in the above list as it commanded some respect in terms of closing rank, something like IT-BHU)

Top AIEEE colleges
IIIT- Hyderabad : 1067 (CSE)
NIT-Warangal: 1297 (ECE)
NIT- Trichy: 2410 (ECE)
If above facts do not clearly convey the message, consider another additional interesting information. The new IIT’s (Patna/Kota/Ropar) didn’t attract a single student below JEE AIR 3000. However, the top AIEEE colleges attracted many students below 1000 rank in AIEEE (IIIT Hyderabad-29, NIT Trichy-9, NIT Warangal- 8).
The reality is obvious- new IITs have not been accorded the rousing welcome of an ‘elite’ institute.

Please refer below pdf file for a list of new IIT, branch codes, opening and closing rank

http://nrispeaks.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/new-iit-branch-code-opening-closing-rank.pdf

2) Demand and supply tool of economics shed a better light on situation- more the quantum of supply (in this case IIT/IIMs), lesser is the (brand) value. As if these 6 new IITs were not less to dilute the brand, two more (MP & HP) will start taking students from next year. The PM’s scientific adviser, Mr CN Rao was forthright in his comments when he called it a disaster to open so many new IIT in a single year. Follow complete story on below link at IBN

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/new-iits-are-a-disaster-says-pms-scientific-adviser/72935-3.html

3) The most important challenge with older IITs has been the lack of incentives for teaching faculty to stay put. Just think of remuneration competitiveness for a fresh PhD contractual staff in IITs with a salary of INR 28K pm. This is height of optimism on part of HRD minister that he can recruit the large number of brilliant people that IITs need with such peanut butter on offer. And the problem is accentuated more because IITs need about 8000 very good people to keep the flag of ‘elite’ class IIT flying.

The strike by IIT professors was brilliantly tagged by Mr Sibal as if the IIT profs are crying for money but in reality they were demanding respect, independence and career growth that is recently blanked out by putting a % cap on professors out of total faculty. In nutshell- destruction of IIT system by our polititians is ongoing and we should have good results in a decade or so. Frankly the only motivation IIT proffs are looking for is: stop de-motivating them.

Very soon new foreign univs will come calling to India (and some in PPP model) and then many of these caged birds will fly to new horizon- the turnaround into mediocrity of these ‘elite’ institutes is a foregone conclusion. Govt seriousness to keep a quality tab on these institutes can hardly be expected when the key motivating factor to create sooooo many IITs/IIMs/NITs/AIIMS is regional politics.

For the sake of completeness, I would like to point out that some of the new IITs are being run from make-shift campuses and this could have prompted PM’s adviser Mr Rao that it is nothing less than a disaster.

External website reference on the topic

http://www.askiitians.com/forums/Discuss-with-Askiitians-Tutors/33/2013/new-iits.htm