All 23 IITs will work together to recruit foreign faculty
Centre’s Bid To Boost Foreign Rankings
All 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are likely to come together to recruit foreign faculty in order to give a fillip to their global rankings. The ministry of human resource development (HRD) has asked the institutes to put up a collective front and collaborate during their visits to foreign campuses and research organisations to recruit foreign faculties, including research scholars of Indian origin
Number of foreign faculty and their research work are some of the key factors in various global university ranking processes and the IITs are likely to discuss this mechanism of collaboration in the forthcoming IIT Council meeting later this month.
“Many IITs are new and are not known. However, IIT as a brand is well known globally and therefore the ministry feels they can join hands while recruiting foreign faculty. This could come up as an agenda at the IIT Council meeting. We will discuss the possibility of a joint body for the same. The old IITs including the Guwahati and Roorkee have good international network and the collaboration will definitely help the new IITs,” said a source.
While the pay package could be an issue while recruiting foreign faculty, according to an official to be present in the IIT Council meeting, “At the time of recruiting the IITs will ideally target the young scholars in foreign campuses who are fresh out of university after completing their PhD.”
IIT Madras International and alumni relations dean R Nagarajan said, “Recruiting foreign faculty will not only improve the research profile of the institute, but also ensure fasted innovations...”
Of the 600 faculty at IIMMadras, there are around five foreign faculty and it is aiming at bringing it to around 5%. Meanwhile, IITs of Delhi and Mumbai after getting the Institute of Excellence status can recruit foreign faculty up to 30% of the total strength and have the autonomy to decide on the pay package.
Source: Times of India, 3/08/18
