IIT Bhubaneswar invites applications for “MGM Chair Professor” in Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

The following is from http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/pdf/MGM%20Chair%20Professor.pdf.


A Chair entitled “MGM Chair Professor” in Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering has been created in IIT Bhubaneswar with a generous endowment of `3 crores from MGM Minerals Limited, Bhubaneswar, Odisha as a measure of the Institute’s firm step towards a meaningful sustainable public private partnership.
The main objective of this Chair-Professor, as a full time faculty of IIT Bhubaneswar, will be to promote teaching and research in Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering with general activities and responsibilities as follows:

1. To play a leading role in the new School of Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Sciences in IIT Bhubaneswar, and steering it towards achieving excellence in research and education.

2. To develop R&D programme relevant to the needs of MGM and other organizations in the related areas.

3. To develop and participate in the academic programmes of the Institute and coordinate research programmes funded by various agencies in the stated and related sector.

4. To initiate and develop student awareness programmes relevant to the needs of Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Sciences in the country in general and in the State of Odisha in particular.

The tenure for appointment to the Chair shall normally be duration based. The incumbent will enjoy remuneration commensurate with experience and may be at the highest level for a Professor in IIT. The position carries supports in terms of free accommodation, research personnel, secretarial assistance, national and international travel and contingency expenses.

The institute is earnestly in search of an eminent academician/industry/R & D person who can occupy this prestigious position.

An accomplished motivated personality willing to take up this challenging and rewarding opportunity in a city supportive environment may send urgently his/her CV either in hard copy or by e-mail to the Director, IIT Bhubaneswar, Samantapuri, Bhubaneswar-751013, India (e-mail: director@iitbbs.ac.in).

Those who submitted their CVs against our earlier advertisement dated 15.09.2010 need not to apply. However, they are welcome to submit their update CVs if they so desires.

Advt. No.: R/1/2011, Dated:10.02.2011

March 16th, 2011

The faculty situation at various IITs in August 2010

The following is obtained from pages 15 and 16 of http://prsindia.org/uploads/media/Institutes%20of%20technology/SCR%20Institue%20of%20Technology%20Bill%202010.pdf.

IIT Sanctioned Faculty Strength In Position Vacancies
Bombay 637 491 146
Delhi 578 416 162
Kanpur 484 349 135
Kharagpur 870 530 340
Madras 566 449 117
Guwahati 340 260 80
Roorkee 577 378 199
Bhubaneswar 90 42 48
Gandhinagar 90 44 46
Hyderabad 90 46 44
Indore 60 30 30
Jodhpur 90 20 70
Mandi 60 16 44
Patna 90 44 46
Ropar 90 33 57

Note: The vacancy numbers for the new IITs should be discounted by 30 each as between the time the last 30 faculty lines were sanctioned and August there was not enough time to recruit against those sanctioned numbers.

February 14th, 2011

Official 2010 open close ranks of EE and Mech of IITs, IT-BHU and ISM

The following table is extracted from http://www.iitg.ac.in/jee/oldinfo.php.

Institute Open EE (11) Close EE (11) Open ME (24) Close ME (24) Last rank
IIT Bombay (B) 1 98 56 471 4728 (B43-Chemistry)
IIT Delhi (D) 76 252 249 603 2922 (D62-Biochem & Biotech)
IIT Madras (M) 109 338 310 777 3898 (M64-Biotechnology)
IIT Kanpur (K) 148 467 531 772 5233 (K43-Chemistry)
IIT Kharagpur (G) 783 991 787 1156 8721 (G38-Architecture)
IIT Roorkee (R) 612 1716 1028 1765 9490 (R38-Architecture)
IIT Guwahati (W) W16-1901 W-16 2338 1570 2422 6582 (W37-Design)
IIT Hyderabad (H) 1715 2626 1920 2915 2915 (H24-Mech)
IIT Gandhinagar (N) 2082 3007 2432 3389 4227 (N07-Chemical Engg)
IT BHU (V) 1720 3285 2519 3573 7172 (V39-Pharma)
IIT Rajasthan (J) 2765 3870 2649 4095 4095 (J24-Mech)
IIT Bhubaneswar (A) 2700 3926 2683 4185 4611 (A09-Civil)
IIT Punjab (E) 2976 3722 3036 4012 4012 (E24-Mech)
IIT Indore (U) 2970 3691 3162 3925 3925 (U24-Mech)
IIT Mandi (C) 4018 4496 3967 4609 4609 (C24-Mech)
IIT Patna (P) 3343 4753 1589 4811 4811 (P24-Mech)
ISMU Dhanbad (S) 4429 5689 3101 5624

7154 (S43-Chemistry)

 

1 comment February 4th, 2011

IIT Bhubaneswar landscape in January 2011



January 30th, 2011

NISER Bhubaneswar boundary as visible from the Jatani – Khurda road

January 30th, 2011

IIT Bhubaneswar gets the largest endowment for a chair professorship in India?

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

The State-based MGM Group, which is one of the oldest mines operators and setting up an integrated steel plant in Dhenkanal district, has upgraded its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the city-based Indian Institute of Technology in July last year, for establishing a chair professor of Eminence for five years to MGM chair professor on a permanent basis.

The revised MoU was signed here on Monday between director of IIT Bhubaneswar Prof M Chakraborty and MGM group chairman Dr RL Mohanty for establishing the MGM chair professor in Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering in the IIT on a permanent basis. For the purpose, the MGM group has agreed to raise the corpus of `1.5 crore promised earlier to `3 crore. It is the largest endowment for a chair professorship in India.

 

January 28th, 2011

10 more IITs? Bangalore University to push for upgradation of UVCE to IIT status.

Update: From a report in DNA.

Sources from the ministry of human resource development said that under the 12th plan, the Centre would announce 10 more IITs.


Following is an excerpt from a report in Deccan Herald.

The Bangalore University will submit a memorandum to the Union Law Minister on January 2 urging him to upgrade University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) to an Indian Institute of Technology.

"The HRD ministry has announced that it would set up ten more IITs soon. UVCE has the necessary infrastructure, expertise, faculty and students. This can be converted into an IIT with a campus at Muddenahalli," Vice-chancellor N Prabhu Dev told reporters on Friday. The memorandum will be submitted at the mega reunion event of UVCE alumni, which will be held from January 1 to 3 on the occasion of Sir Visvesvaraya’s 150th anniversary. "UVCE might remain a constituent college of BU. Even if we have to let go of the administration of UVCE, we will not mind," he added.

VSSUT Burla must be watchful and take appropriate steps at the right time.

3 comments January 1st, 2011

NISER Bhubaneswar advertises for faculty position in Mathematics; first date February, 5th, 2011

Following is from http://www.niser.ac.in/notices/2010/Advt_FC_Math.pdf.


The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) has been setup at Bhubaneswar by the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India as a unique institution of its kind pursuing undergraduate and post-graduate education in science combined with frontline research. NISER is being setup in a sprawling 300 acre campus about 3 km from Khurda Road Railway Station on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar overlook- ing Barunei Hills. It will be a fully residential campus with modern living amenities including children’s school and health centre. Presently NISER is functioning from its own Academic Building of about 5000 m2 area within the Institute of Physics campus. It is expected to move to the main campus by the academic session of 2012-13.

NISER invites applications for the following positions in the School of Mathematical Sciences from extremely motivated Indian scientists with a high-profile research agenda and a flair for teaching especially at the under- graduate level.

POSITIONS 1. Assistant Professor

• Pay Band -3: Rs. 15,600 – 39,100    Grade Pay- Rs. 7,600/-    Initial Basic Pay: 29,500*/-

• NISER has provision for advance increments maximum up to 5 to the selected candidates depending upon their post doctoral experience and quality of publications. Accordingly, the above initial basic pay may increase.

• Educational Qualification & Experience: A Ph.D. degree in the relevant discipline from a reputed and recognized university or institute. Three years of postdoctoral experience or three years teaching/research experience after Ph.D. preferably abroad with high quality publication in high impact journals.

2. Reader F

• Pay Band 4: Rs. 37,400 – 67,000    Grade Pay: 8,700/-
Initial Basic Pay: 46,100

• Educational Qualification & Experience: A Ph.D. degree in the relevant discipline from a reputed University or Institute. At least 5 years of postdoctoral/teaching experience preferably abroad with high quality publication in high impact journals.

• OTHER BENEFITS:

– In addition to the basic salary, NISER faculty member are entitled to the allowances as admissible to Central Government Employees stationed at Bhubaneswar.

– The Performance Related Incentive Scheme (PRIS) of DAE is likely to be implemented in the NISER, under which, there is provision for monthly incentive of 20% of the basic pay.

– NISER Faculties are also be eligible for DAE’s update allowance, which is currently Rs. 10,000 to Rs.30,000 per year depending on the scale of pay.

– Provision of Relocation Grant:

a. The candidates who are in abroad and joining NISER from there only shall be paid relocation grant maximum up to Rs.90000/- subject to submission/ production of original receipts.

b. Candidates who are in Government service and joining NISER shall be paid Joining T. A. as per Government of India rule.

c. Candidates joining NISER neither from abroad nor from Government service shall also be considered for Relocation Grant on case to case basis subject to approval of Board of Governors, NISER.

– Reimbursement of telephone charges on monthly basis as per Institute rule.

– NISER is also providing financial support to the faculty members for attending National, International Conferences, Seminars, Workshops, etc. which is comparable to the best in the country.

– NISER has sufficient funds to provide seed money to the new faculty members to start their research programme. In addition the Department of Atomic Energy provides generous grants from its Prospective Research Fund to bright young scientists.

– The age of superannuation of faculty members of NISER is 65 years.

– NISER Faculty members are covered under New Pension Scheme as notified by the Government of India, Ministry of Finance.

Interested candidates may apply by enclosing:

• Curriculum Vitae
• List of Publications (with reprints of important papers as pdf files)
• Names and addresses (with e-mail and fax number) of at least three referees
• A statement of purpose and research programme

The qualification and experience prescribed are the minimum and mere possession of the same does not entitle a candidate to be considered for any position. However, the experience criteria may be relaxed for exceptionally meritorious candidates.

Applications should be sent by e-mail to vmuruganandam [at] niser [dot] ac [dot] in  marking ”Faculty application ” in the subject field.

This is an open rolling advertisement and the applications shall be accepted throughout the year and will be considered for selection at regular intervals. However, the first panel of candidates will be prepared for selection among the suitable candidates whom applications shall be received by February, 5th, 2011.

Candidates are advised to request the Referees to send their letters of recommendations (preferably signed versions as pdf file) directly to NISER at the above e-mail address. Those having regular job in any organization should also send a scanned copy of ”No Objection Certificate” issued by the current employer.

All correspondence should be addressed to the above e-mail address only. No postal correspondence is required at any stage. Enquiry regarding the outcome of the application is discouraged. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted further.

Those who have already applied need not apply again.

 

December 23rd, 2010

NISER Bhubaneswar advertises for Assistant Professor positions in English, Economics, Philosophy and Sociology

They have one position in each of those areas. The closing date for receiving applications is January 15 2011. The ad is available at http://niser.ac.in/notices/2010/Advt.FC_HUM_02_2010-withform.pdf. Following is an excerpt of that ad as it appears in student.exattosoft.com.

National Institute of Science Education and Research
Institute of Physics Campus, Bhubaneswar
web : http://niser.ac.in
Advt. No. FC/HUM/02/2010
NISER invites applications for the following posts of Assistant Professor:

  • Assistant Professor: one post in each of the following disciplines: 
    • English: Linguistics, English Language Teaching (ELT), Communication Skills, Indian Writings in English, Science journalism, Computational linguistics and syntax.
    • Economics: Micro economics, Macro economics, Development economics, Indian economic planning and development, Industrial economics, Labour economics, Environmental economics, International economics (with focus on finance and trade), Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Institutional Economics.
    • Philosophy: Logic and Foundations of Scientific Method, Contemporary western philosophy, Indian philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy and History of science, analytical philosophy. 
    • Sociology: Indian Social Structure, Development & Voluntary Sector, Social Entrepreneurship, Social change and Science, Technology & Society.
    • Pay Band: Rs. 15600-39100 + GP Rs. 7600
    • Age: Max 37 years as on 15.01.2011
  • Last Date: 15.01.2011

December 10th, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar advertises for a Professor position for its new School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences (SEOCS)

Following is from http://iitbbs.gov.in/iit_news_events_details.php?id=15&type=scroll.

IIT Bhubaneswar invites applications from Indian nationals who are exceptionally bright and motivated, with an established record of independent, high quality research and commitment to teaching for position of Professors for its new School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences (SEOCS) on direct recruitment / contract / by transfer on deputation basis with provision for absorption.

The prime responsibility of the Professor so recruited would be to set up the School of Earth, Ocean and Climatic Sciences and the Innovation Centre for climate changes. Besides setting up of the School, his / her other responsibilities would, inter alia, include, the following activities:-

1. To play a leading role in the proposed school of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences in IIT Bhubaneswar and steering it towards achieving excellence in research and education.

2. To develop R&D Programme relevant to the needs of the proposed school and other organization in the related areas.

3. To develop and participate in the academic programmes of the Institute and co-ordinate research programmes funded by various agencies in the related areas.

4. To initiate and develop student awareness programmes relevant to the needs of Earth, Ocean, and climatic Sciences (SEOCS) in the country in general and in the state of Odisha in particular.
ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE: – The candidate must have a Ph.D or equivalent degree in Earth System Sciences (Geology, Geophysics, Atmospheric or Oceanic Sciences) with consistent good academic record. He/She must be holding a regular position of Professor in a national Institute of repute with at least 15 years research experience in any branch of Earth System Sciences.
Desirable: – Proven experience of administrative capabilities as Head of the Department / Centre / Programme for at least a period of 2 years. He/She must have successfully handled sponsored / Consultancy R&D projects and be able to interact nationally and internationally in the inter disciplinary areas of Earth System Sciences.

No. of Post: 1(one) UNRESERVED
Scale of Pay :-
Position
Pay Band
Minimum Pay in the Pay Band
Academic Grade Pay
Professor
PB:4 Rs.37,400-Rs. 67,000/-
Rs. 48,000/-
Rs. 10,500/-

Pay Protection is admissible for Professors drawing salary at a higher stage including HAG Scale. In addition to above pay, allowances and other facilities including medical facilities, LTC etc would be same as approved by the Govt of India for IITs.

1. A cumulative Professional Development Allowance of Rs. 3 Lakhs for every block period of 3 years on reimbursement basis to meet the expenses for attending international/national conferences, paying membership fees of professional bodies, covering book grant, paying telephone charges and meeting contingent expenses etc. as per Institute guidelines.

OTHER INCENTIVES

2. Reimbursement of relocation charges at the time of joining up to a ceiling of Rs. 90,000/- as per Institute norm.

3. Honorarium of Rs. 15, 000/- per month to the faculty members who have obtained Bhatnagar Award OR are Fellows of at least two National Academies. A faculty member is entitled for only one honorarium.
In the event of a Professor who is under Pension Scheme in any Central/State Government funded Pensionable establishment, the Institute would pay his leave salary and pension contribution as per rate prescribed by the Govt of India for the period of deputation. The period of deputation would be ordinarily for a period of five years with provision for absorption subject to satisfactory performance.
Terms & Conditions for appointment on transfer on deputation
Candidate possessing the requisite qualification and experience may submit their application in the prescribed proforma either a hard copy or by E-mail to the Registrar, IIT Bhubaneswar, Samanatapuri , Bhubaneswar-751013, India (E-mail: faculty.app @iitbbs.ac.in) latest by 15th December 2010. Those who are under Govt / Govt funded Institute should apply through proper channel. However, if a delay is envisaged he/she can submit an advance copy of his/her application to the Institute.

How to Apply:
Advt. No. R/7/2010 Dated: 15.11.2010
Registrar

1 comment November 22nd, 2010

Directors of the new IITs meet Kapil Sibal; IIT Patna and IIT Bhubaneswar receive special mention for good progress in infrastructure related development

Following is from the PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=66496.

The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Kapil Sibal had an interaction with the Directors of the eight new IITs here today. The meeting was taken to discuss issues specific to new IITs, especially with regard to the constraints they are facing in infrastructure and faculty development. All the IITs made separate presentations, consequent to which discussions were held and the following decisions were taken.

A number of IITs are facing problems of clearances with Central/State Government Departments for acquisition of the land allotted to them. In this regard, the Minister has asked for a meeting to be taken next month with the concerned State Government officials, Central Government officials and IIT Directors to facilitate the process of land acquisition. 

The issue of providing salary that will attract good faculty was discussed at length. In this regard it was decided with the Minister’s approval that topping up of government approved salary can be done by the IITs from their own funds. 

At present, in the IITs, the HAG scale(Rs.67,000-Rs.79,000) is applicable for 40% of the Professors in position. The new IITs expressed that they have been unable to implement this grade since it has been possible for them to recruit few faculty so far. The Minister stated, here, that the ministry would seek approval from the Finance Ministry/Cabinet to provide for a new proviso for the new IITs to be able to implement this salary grade. 

The new IITs felt that that a revision in fund allocation would be required in view of the escalation of construction costs. The minister directed the officials to examine the matter and come up with a proposal in this regard.   


Following is an excerpt from a report in zee news.

All the new eight Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) established over the last three years have been asked to have their campuses ready by 2014 even as the government was mulling increasing the funds allocated for the purpose.

… IIT Patna and IIT Bhubaneswar, though, received special mention for making a good headway in infrastructure related development, they said.

Sibal also said his Ministry would move a Cabinet note on the issue of enhanced allocation of funds for campus development after the directors drew attention to cost escalation over the years.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindustan Times.

The human resource development ministry is planning special incentives to lure faculty from the older Indian Institutes of Technology to take up teaching posts at the country’s new breed of IITs struggling to attract teachers.

… Under the proposal for giving incentives to teachers — which the HRD ministry is currently discussing with the finance ministry — teachers at older IITs will be required to spend a ten-year tenure at one of the new-born IITs.

I don’t trust the above Hindustan Times report. I think the writer might have misunderstood something.

October 22nd, 2010

IIMs will be allowed to open centers inside and outside the country

Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=66338.

A meeting was held today under the Chairmanship of Human Resources Minister, Shri Kapil Sibal with the Chairpersons and Directors of IIMS on the future vision of the IIMs and the necessary steps to be taken to achieve them. Shri Sibal informed the members that in the last one and half year a number of steps have been taken by the Ministry to provide autonomy to the IIMs. Some of these include full powers to the Boards of IIMs to create posts within the approved norms, freedom to open centres in India and abroad, amend Rules of the IIM within the framework of Memorandum of Association and Rules, power to acquire and dispose property not fully or partially funded by the Ministry of HRD, powers to approve their own Budget, and also to manage the funds generated by the IIMs on their own. However, he said that autonomy should go hand in hand with accountability; in that the faculty, the director and the Board should take steps to prepare annual action plans and key performance indicators at each level and be fully accountable and transparent. 

The meeting considered the reports of Committees constituted in the last meeting in Bangalore on certain key issues. Discussions were held on the report of the Committee constituted to recommend a new Governance Structure for IIMs (chaired by Shri R.C. Bhargav, Chairman BOG- IIM, Ranchi). It was decided that the number of Board Members of IIMs would be reduced to 14. It also discussed the composition and selection of the Boards of governors with adequate membership to the Society of the IIM, the government, the faculty and the alumni. It was also decided that the IIM societies should have long term members who take continuous interest in the running of the IIMs. It was also decided, in principle, that Directors of IIMs will now be appointed through a process wherein the Board of Governors of the IIMs suggests three names to the Government from which the Government chooses one. 

On the second report of the Committee on Faculty and Research at the IIMs, chaired by Shri Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman, IIM, Calcutta. It was decided that the IIMs can top up the salaries of their Directors also in addition to the Faculty from the funds generated by them on their own. It was also decided that the Faculty members would give individual work plans at the start of the year. The recommendations of the Committee regarding use of technology in IIMs were accepted and the Minister directed that old and new IIMs sit together to streamline the use of technology for class scheduling, attendance, mark compilation etc. 

On the recommendations of the Committee on Fund Raising by IIMs (chaired by Shri Hari S. Bhatia, Chairman of IIM, Raipur), it was decided that the IIMs have a development office especially for the purpose, each IIM have a fund raising policy and thereafter to have road shows. A two-day workshop will be conducted on the subject of collecting endowments for institutes. 

MV/GK


 The Odisha government should pursue with IIM Calcutta for a branch in Odisha.

28 comments October 13th, 2010

A world ranking of universities that makes sense to me; Indian institutions in that ranking

The ranking is done by an Australian group based on a measure they call RPI (Research Performance Index). The ranking is at http://www.highimpactuniversities.com/rpi.html.

The ranking uses:

  • Publications policy:
    • periods are between 2000 to 2009 inclusive
    • types are restricted to journal and conference articles, and authored and edited books 
    • citations can be from any source
  • Credit policy:
    • credit is given to the institution where the work was performed (not the current affiliation of the authors)
    • credit is given to all institutions involved
    • credit is given to one or more faculties wherever appropriate

The methodology of the ranking is that they divide the university faculty to five groups:

  • MDPHS= Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacology, and Health Sciences
  • PNMS= Pure, Natural, and Mathematical Sciences 
  • ECT= Engineering, Computing, and Technology 
  • LBAS= Life, Biological and Agricultural Sciences
  • AHBSS= Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social Sciences

1. For each group the g-index of the publications are determined using the SCOPUS database. The The g-index is defined as the highest count g of publications, such that taken together, have an average of at least g citations per publication. (L. Egghe, “Theory and Practise of the g-index,” Scientometrics, Vol. 69, No. 1, pp. 131-152, Jan. 2006.)

2. Then they divide or normalize the g-index for each faculty by that of the highest globally performing faculty 

3. Then they average or sum the normalized faculty indices to arrive at a final RPI value for a particular university

Based on this only two Indian Institutions appear in the top 500.

  • IIT Kanpur at 444
  • IISc Bangalore at 468 

They also give the ranking for each of the five groups. Following are Indian institutions in those rankings. 


To me this ranking makes the most sense of any ranking I have seen as it is based on data, and it basically looks at the quality of faculty in terms of the impact of their publications.

September 30th, 2010

Unofficial 2010 first round open close ranks of EE and Mech of IITs, IT-BHU and ISM

The following is extracted from the unofficial source at http://piratecoders.co.cc/projects/iit-jee-results/jee-ranks/.

Institute Open EE (11) Close EE (11) Open ME (24) Close ME (24) Last rank
IIT Bombay (B) 1 96 56 468 4056 (Chemistry)
IIT Delhi (D) 76 241 249 603 2883 (Biochem & Biotech)
IIT Madras (M) 109 338 310 777 3678 (Biotechnology)
IIT Kanpur (K) 148 467 531 772 4803 (Chemistry)
IIT Kharagpur (G) 783 991 787 1156 6652 (Architecture)
IIT Roorkee (R) 612 1699 1028 1763 7092 (Architecture)
IIT Guwahati (W) W16-1901 W-16 2336 1570 2400 5831 (Design)
IIT Hyderabad (H) 1715 2552 1920 2837 2837 (Mech)
IIT Gandhinagar (N) 2082 2956 2432 3216 3811 (Chemical Engg)
IT BHU (V) 1720 3270 2519 3463 6624 (Pharma)
IIT Rajasthan (J) 2765 3716 2649 3904 3904 (Mech)
IIT Bhubaneswar (A) 2700 3866 2683 3973 4294 (Civil)
IIT Punjab (E) 2970 3632 3162 3839 3839 (Mech)
IIT Indore (U) 2976 3633 3036 3909 3909 (Mech)
IIT Mandi (C) 3906 4164 3967 4246 4246 (Mech)
IIT Patna (P) 3343 4331 1589 4435 4435 (Mech)
ISMU Dhanbad (S) 4325 5174 3101 5195

6709 (Chemistry)

September 25th, 2010

IITs get ok to have medical colleges, foreign faculty and foreign students

Update: IIT Kharagpur and IIT Hyderabad are keen on having medical schools.


Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

The prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology would now offer courses in medicine with foreign nationals on permanent faculty positions and students from abroad at the post graduate level.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of IIT council presided by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday.

The government decided to seek the approval of the Medical Council of India for the course, Sibal told reporters.

The IIT council meeting decided to carry out appropriate amendment in the Institute of Technologies Act to enable the IITs to offer the medicine programme, he added.

"We are making sure that wherever the instruction leads to a degree relating to any branch of medicine, then of course clearances from MCI under the Act will have to be taken," Sibal said.

He, however, said no MCI approval would be required where IITs engage with inter-disciplinary research for the advancement of learning and dissemination of knowledge not leading to a degree or qualification for the practice of medicine.

… The council also decided to enable IITs to recruit foreign faculties which should not be more than 10 per cent of the total faculty strength.

"In principle, we agreed that IITs are entitled to recruiting foreign faculties", Sibal said adding they will set up a mechanism with the Home Ministry to ensure there is no "hiccup in the process and there is easy exit and entry of people" as faculties.

Some other issues like bringing amendments to the Indian Citizenship Act will also have to be looked into, he said.

… Sibal said the meeting also agreed in principle to admit up to 25 per cent foreign students at the post graduate level on a "supernumerary basis without affecting the present admission norms for Indian students".

On medical schools at IIT, the main bone of contention was that IITs would have preferred that the medical schools in IITs do not have to get approval from the Medical Council of India. This would have been similar to them not needing approval from AICTE for their engineering programs. But the health ministry would not agree to that. So now the IITs are ready to accept MCI authority over their medical schools. This solves the problem.

4 comments September 10th, 2010

IITs ask permission to hire foreign faculty in permanent positions

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

Facing a massive shortage of well-qualified teachers, the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) have mooted a proposal for hiring foreign nationals as permanent faculty members.

With one-third teaching positions lying vacant, the proposal as a solution to meet the unprecedented staff crunch is expected to be deliberated at the next IIT council meeting on Friday, IIT officials said.

The move, if accepted, would enable the premier engineering and technology institutes to appoint foreign teachers on permanent positions, up to 10 per cent of the faculty strength.

I hope this proposal by the IITs is approved and the limit is increased from the proposed 10%.

Most universities in US, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore etc. are able to hire foreign faculty in permanent positions. The inability of IITs and other Indian institutions to do that hurts them. This will also serve as an experiment to see how attractive the salary offered by the IITs is to foreign faculty that are not of Indian origin. The data and experience gathered from this experiment will be useful for the universities of innovation which are supposed to be unconstrained by the government in terms of salary offered to its faculty. The concept note of these universities already talked about allowing hiring of foreign faculty.

September 9th, 2010

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