topics: |  india | education | iit

The decaying IITs

The IITs are in a sorry state, according to Gulhati who after graduating
from MIT, taught at IIT Delhi for forty years.  There isn't enough good
research, the student intake is lopsided and demotivated, the faculty have
lost their idealism. The main problem, feels Gulhati, is interference from
the government, particularly the Joint Secretary in the ministry that
oversees the IITs - the MHRD.

Things haven't quite gone as far as AIIMS which is at constant loggerheads
with the political bosses in the ministry for health; at AIIMS the
governing board was reconstituted in the 1970s (by the then minister Raj
Narain), so that politicians and bureaucrats now outnumber medicos and
acadmics on the board.  The yes-men of the ministry will get any measure
passed, often opposed to the the faculty and the director.  At most IITs,
the MHRD joint secretary has been appointed to the board.  Some boards
(like Roorkee) have two bureaucrats.  The rules say that board members are
supposed to have people of outstanding technical or industrial experience,
and while many IAS officers are IIT graduates themselves, it would be hard
to argue about their technical experience.

Too much government interference?

Gulhati feels that the IITs did well in their early years, when their was a
lot of idealism in the system and the government gave a free hand to the
academics.  Today, he feels that there is too much politicization,
directors are worried that the Ministry may not approve their leave plans,
and toe the line set by the ministry.  The way out, he suggests, may be
private ownership; several groups, typically alumnus-driven, have in recent
years proposed a "buyout" of the IITs from the government...

Particularly damning is Gulhati's discussion of the opaque process by which
directors are appointed (based on an interview at the MHRD - selected
essentially by the same Joint Secretary).  He has been a candidate himself,
and describes the experience which is based on "nominations" from a select
few and does not take into cognizance any inputs from the faculty or other
stakeholders.  The final interview, at the minister's office, can be quite
humiliating (see below).

This is a book that needed to be written in these times when the burnished
IIT image is shining brightly, but the hallowed institutions are perhaps
not quite what they used to be.  Government decisions, such as the sudden
move to open eight new IITs, being taken without sufficient input from
academia or others, and given the continuing shortage of good faculty, may
not help much in the long run.

The director of IIT Madras, M. Ananth, tells a relevant joke in connection
with government interference at the IITs.  It seems E.M. Forster once wrote
Natwar Singh:

EM Forster: the condition of the Ajanta caves were getting worse.
NS's reply:  But no, the Archaelogical Survey has formed a group and is
	taking good care of them.
EMF: the caves which were thriving in neglect are now dying from the
	attention.

Perhaps the IITs could do with more benign neglect.

Quotations

Kanta Murali, Frontline, Feb 2003: The IIT Story
Sarkar Committee: 1946 22 member committee headed by N.R. Sarkar
presented interim report in 1946
Never submitte4d final report, but IIT Kgp set up in May 1950

Indiresan / Nigam: 1% of IIT B.Techs do their PhD in India, p.11.
	2% do it abroad
Among IITians migrating abroad, 90% are UG and 10% are PG
Laboratories at IIT - in very bad shape

Joint Secy at MHRD:
	have gradually become powerful, since directors are weak.
	directors are constantly worried if their leave requests to attend
	conferences etc will be put up by the Jt Secy on time.

Director Selection

At private corporations and at MNC's, there is considerable thought given
to the  grooming of potential successors, but not so for directors, who
are appointed in what appears to be a rather non-transparent process:
   a) Ministry HRD asks for nominations.
   b) Candidates are asked to send in their resumes.
   c) Someone in the ministry shortlists the candidates.
   d) The shortlisted are then called for an interview at the minister's
	chamber.

Gulhati himself was a candidate once and found the experience humiliating:
	I was asked to present myself at the office of the Minister of HRD at
	some specified time.  I did.  There were another seven or eight
	similarly invited.  We were asked to wait in the office of the PA
	which neither had sufficient room nor furniture.  I was appalled to
	see the then Director of my IIT also seated there. .. they haed seen
	him functioning as Director for 5 years... he was not re-appointed.

	At my turn, I went into the Minister's office.  I knew some of those
	who sat there as members of the selection committee - all very
	illustrious people.  The minister did not ask any questions - just
	graced the occasion with his presence.  The discussion was totally
	pedestrian.  No one asked me what I thought was amiss in the IIT
	system etc.. Someone asked me, "How many phd students have you
	guided?"  60-61

Gurcharan Das, ToI:
	India's greatness lies in its self-reliant and resilient people.  We
	are able to pull ourselves up by our chappals and survive, nay, even
	flourish, when the State fails us at every turn. - ToI Sunday column
	2006 feb 26

When our govt realizes that it doesn't have to run these schools and clinics,
but only provide for them, will we achieve the Indian way to greatness. 55

From Sandipan Deb, IITians:

Rajat Gupta, ex MD McKinsey & Co: I remember a few profs. There were some you
stayed in touch with even after you had graduated. But.. most of my memories
are from outside the classroom.

Nandan Nilekani: I hardly ever went to class, and I don't remember a thing I
was taught.

JEE: 2006, nearly 3 L candidates, for 4000 seats at 7 iits

McKinsey & Co study: Shaping the Knowledge economy in India, 2001, in
"Changes required in Faculty compensation and evaluation":
  * de-link faculty salary from current govt scale and create a new category
  * introduce significant performance-linked component in compensation
  * allow direct compensation from industry without limit
  * provide a high standard of research and personal infrastructure

Student admission and JEE

The book repeatedly highlights problems with the JEE system.

Universities abroad select students by considering a large number of
factors, including academic competence, social interaction history, other
talents like music or sports, the amount of diversity they will bring to
the student body, etc.  Students who meet some of these criteria are
interviewed, typically by alumnus in their home cities, and are then
finally evaluated.  Consequently, the students have varied backgrounds and
interests, and shine in different areas.

On the other hand, IITs are constrained to look at a single measure, the JEE,
which has been corrupted by the coaching centers; consequently the student
body coming into IITs (who have often spent a year or two away from home at
the coaching center) are all similar - they have very strong examination
skills, but little other interests.

Often the students thus admitted, after years of grinding preparation, find
themselves in a completely unexpected situation where they don't know what
they are doing.  Studentsa re assigned a discipline right at admission time
(at age 16), based on JEE rank.  Many of them find their courses uninspiring,
and would rather be studying humanities.  Many students, in traditional
engineering branches, know that their courses are completely useless because
ultimately they will be hired by an IT firm.  The number of suicides at most
IITs (about 1 every year) is quite staggering.

Alternative proposals and why they won't work

An alternative Student admission proposal:
   - Let JEE sift top 10K students.
   - These students are asked to submit additional material, portfolios,
	     writeups etc.
   - Everyone is interviewed by some local alumnus groups
     - Students from weaker schools, weaker geographic areas, and whose
          parents are in a weaker social strata, can be given preference.
     - final evaluation can still be anonymous, as it has been, via a roll
          number coding.  However all these factors can be taken into
	  account.
     - after the process, students records and his evaluation comments
	  can be made available to the candidate.

Similar measures have been proposed a number of times,
Part of the reason why such a system cannot be adopted is that any degree of
subjectivity in the process is likely to be manipulated by the ministers and
their babus to get their own wards admitted.

So again, we come back to the issue of government interference.