The Narendra Modi government wants an IIT and IIM in every state. The need is there, but setting them up is another matter. It takes resourcefulness, imagination and patience to build an ecosystem that matches the highest standards--in faculty, research, infrastructure, placementsexpected of the best universities, report Hari Pulakkat, Kala Vijayraghavan & Rica Bhattacharyya Another stated intention of the new government is 100 new cities. Could some of these develop around the new IITs and IIMs?
As a professor at IIT Kanpur, Sudhir Jain had disliked the idea of setting up a string of new IITs. That was seven years ago, when a fresh set of IITs were conceived by the government. But Arjun Singh, the then human resources development minister, persuaded Jain to take up the directorship of IIT Gandhinagar. After five years at the new institute, Jain has a different view on the topic. “You get a lot of freedom in a new institution and you can build something truly innovative,“ he says.A new government in Delhi is once again on an institution-building mood, and is planning to extend the founts of excellence in engineering and management education--the IITs and IIMs --to every state.
The numerical case to expand is compelling. Today, there are 17 IITs and 13 IIMs.
In 2013, for every 158 students who sat for the IIT entrance exam, only one made it.
In IIMs, it was one in 58 students.
India needs these two institutional systems of higher education to be bigger, a geographical expansion of the kind outlined --one of each in every state --is a real challenge if quality is to be preserved, more so for IIMs than for IITs. It will take great resourcefulness and imagination to pull this off, and Jain is attempting to do this at IIT Gandhinagar.
Jain loves to build things in his own way, stretching the notion of flexibility given to directors to its limits. Since his vision of a great IIT revolved around great faculty, he started looking for outstanding researchers regardless of their subject of expertise, even if the subject was not a traditional IIT discipline. One of his early recruits was a researcher in cognitive science, a young researcher called Jaison Manjaly. He hired three more young researchers after Manjaly joined; IIT Gandhinagar now offers masters and PhD programmes in cognitive science. “There is no reason for an IIT to stick to traditional engineering subjects,“ says Jain.
IITs have had some connection with social sciences right from their beginnings, but their reputation was built on core engineering disciplines. Moreover, each IIT was built on the other's image, with very little differentiation between them. Some of the new IITs are choosing to cut their own path, deciding to organise their institutions in novel ways. Most new IITs offer some unusual courses for an engineering institution. At least one, IIT Jodhpur, has done away with traditional structures and conceived a different way of organising itself. It has just four departments: biologically-inspired system science, energy, information and communication technologies, and system science.
Some new IITs are also struggling, but in the race to be world-class institutions, they are moving ahead of the new IIMs.
Although their new campus constructions were delayed, some IITs are now preparing to move into their new campuses.
IIT Hyderabad will begin moving after a month, and IIT Gandhinagar will move in December. IIT Mandi has been moving slowly into its own campus over the last one year. These IITs will be followed soon by those in Patna and Bhubaneswar. The IITs have also had better success in attracting new faculty, including directors.
By comparison, none of the new IIMs, even IIM Shillong, set up in 2007, has moved into a new campus. Also, they have remained small, with only 120 students on an average, against the 400-odd in the older IIMs. The average shortage of faculty -number of sanctioned posts versus vacant positions --is about 40%, say IIM officials.
The stark differences between new IITs and IIMs are obvious to observers as the government plans to set up new IITs and IIMs, and this difference reflects in the opinion of academicians within these institutions. While the IIM professors largely dislike the idea of IIMs in every state, there is general agreement within the IIT faculty that it is a very good idea.
Case For Expansion This difference has to do with the availability of experienced talent, as there is a higher supply of academic engineers than management professors in the country.
“We all think just opening IIMs and IITs in every state reduces their brand value,“ says Anindya Sen, dean academics, IIM Calcutta. “The big problem will be in getting infrastructure, good faculty and a good director.“
Engineers and scientists cite the extraordinary increase in demand--from both students and industry--for high quality engineers and researchers as a reason for expanding the IIT system. One yardstick is the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in tertiary education, which is a measure of the percentage of school passouts enrolling for higher eduation. When the first set of IITs was started, by the 1960s, India's GER in tertiary education hovered around 4%.
The last two decades have seen a spurt in GER for higher education in the country, and it is now around 24%. Since most institutions are planned looking into the future, we are looking at even higher GERs, as has happened in developed economies (See graphic). Says National Research Professor RA Mashelkar: “There has to be a 10-fold expansion in the IIT system if the GER increases 10 times.“
There is a clear demand for new institutions from industry as well. “While we need to concentrate on improving the IITs and IIMs,“ says Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej Group and the Indian School of Business, “expanding their numbers is also important if India's GDP has to grow at 8%-plus.“
Difference In IIMs And IITs We could argue similarly for the IITs and IIMs, but there are major differences between engineering and management research in the country that finally show up in the health of the new institutions. The IITs form a large system, with a substantial undergraduate base.
That system is boosted by a big network of tier-II engineering institutes, National Institute of Technology (NIT), formerly Regional Engineering College (REC), many of which are of good quality. By comparison, management institutions of high quality are fewer in number.
Moreover, a fair number of engineering graduates from the IITs and NITs finally go on to do a PhD, either in India or abroad. On the other hand, an MBA is usually an end in itself, and few students continue their education with a PhD in management. So, the country--any country for that matter--has a lower supply of management PhDs compared to engineering PhDs.
Although the demand is correspondingly low, it is more difficult to get good management PhDs than engineering PhDs.
As a result, the new IIMs have found it difficult to hire good faculty while the IITs have had better success, judging within the limitations all government institutions face. With exceptions, the new IIMs have had to either poach from other IIMs-with very little success--or hire some candidates with weak research credentials. Government officials who work with the IIMs say that it will take a long time before the new ones become world-class institutions. On the other hand, at least some new IITs have a shorter path to excellence, as many world-class engineering professors are willing to come back from abroad and join them.
IIM Hardsell Consider IIT Hyderabad, which started in 2008 and is now preparing to move into its new campus. It has 1,600 students and 130 professors. Only three of them came from another IIT, and that too for advantages of location. More than one-third of the faculty have done their PhDs abroad, and one-fourth joined after post-doctoral work abroad. So, the newer IITs have relatively young faculty, who have the opportunities and perhaps the motivation to prove themselves in a new institution. “We are like a startup,“ says IIT Hyderabad director Uday Desai. “We have young faculty who work like entrepreneurs.“
Situated near a high-tech and cosmopolitan city, IIT Hyderabad has an advantage of location. So has IIT Gandhinagar, which has had little difficulty in selling itself.
IITs away from the main cities have had problems in attracting faculty, and but not as much as the new IIMs.
For that matter, even venerable institutions like IIT Kanpur and IIT Kharagpur are now feeling the effects of being located in small towns, as the younger generation is as much interested in jobs for their spouses as they are in their own careers.
The small town labs of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have similar experiences. All of this leads us to an overwhelming question: is it wise to start big institutions in small towns?
The experiences of the new IIMs tend to corroborate our negative feelings about small towns. For IIMs, campus recruitment is one sign of success. But several new IIMs, even IITs, received a lukewarm response this year from top recruiters, compared to their older peers, with annual packages as low as 4 lakh being offered.
Most new institutes are located in farflung places, with tough road or rail connectivity. “Hence, it is difficult for them to provide the culture and ecosystem that the brand IIM is known for,“ says Akshay Tandon, who is from the first batch of IIMKashipur, and was a member of its placement committee. “It is a tough ask for them to get recruiters on campus.“
IIM directors accept this argument.
Says Prafulla Agnihotri, director of IIM Trichy: “Location is critical to set up a high-quality institution which has access to the right infrastructure, good corporates, residential areas, recreational facilities, world-class schooling, and the ability to attract the best faculty from all over the world.“
Given these challenges, Sen of IIM Calcutta feels rather than extend that expansion and dilute the IIM brand, the government should promote a second tier of institutes along the lines of NITs, and build on existing resources. “One option could be to take the existing departments of business management or commerce within various universities that are lying near dormant and giving them a facelift,“ he says. “Make them strong by investing money, getting new faculty, giving better IT infrastructure and maybe also sharing faculty from the IIMs. This will get you more value of money than just trying to set up an IIM in every state.“
New Institutions, New Cities Remote location hasn't affected the IITs as much as the IIMs. One of the IITs, in Mandi, has flaunted its remoteness and turned it into an advantage. Mandi is situated in the Himalayan foothills. It has a scenic location and weather patterns quite different from the northern plains and the south, but has little by way of entertainment or other attractions. It is six hours from Chandigarh and an hour and a half from Kulu, the nearest airport.
To attract outstanding visiting faculty, IIT Mandi turned the usual semester season on its head. It works during the pleasant summer months and holidays during the cold winter. It sells itself as a retreat, somewhat like the California towns, and organises conferences where participants prefer to sit till the end. “We sell ourselves as the only IIT in the Himalayas,“ says its director Timothy Gonsalves.
With 600 students and 60 professors, IIT Mandi has a high student-faculty ratio.
It also specialises in Himalayan science and technology, and new materials for electrical, electronic and medical applications. Surprisingly, some Himalayan medicinal plants are useful for this application. Himalayan geology is another area of specialisation. Among other things, it also has a programme on next generation materials sponsored by Intel.
IIT Mandi has thus been able to attract young faculty educated in top institutions in India and abroad. Some new IITs have not had such success, but are still not too far behind, as many young researchers have been willing to join them after their PhDs.
In the future, smaller towns might leverage the IIT knowledge-base to develop into liveable cities, just as the Himalayan region is leveraging IIT Mandi for sound development. Will the new government use them to develop 100 new cities, another stated intention? At least some of the new cities can develop around new IITs.
In fact, experience in some countries has shown the value of a great educational institution in reinventing cities. The best example is Pittsburgh, which transformed itself from a steel city to a knowledge city, while Detroit struggled to recover from the loss of the auto industry. Pittsburgh has two world class universities--Carnegie Melon and the University of Pittsburgh-while Detroit has none. Is there a lesson for us here, as we build our twenty-first century cities?
hari.pulakkat@timesgroup.com
