IITs, IIMs start global hunt for best faculty

There is acute shortage of teachers at IITs and IIMs.

The gap between demand and supply of professors in centres of higher education, such as IITs and IIMs is increasing year-on-year. These institutions are finding it hard to fill the vacant teaching positions with suitable teachers. They are now exploring and inviting teachers from across the globe to fill these positions.

In 2016, the gap between required and available teachers in the IITs was 50 per cent, according to the central government. This year also, the situation is similar, and going forward, will be pathetic as newer IITs are added. Due to lack of professors in these institutions, the quality of education is deteriorating.

IIT Bombay, first to be established, is short of 389 teachers, where the HRD Ministry has given a sanction of 1017 teachers.

IIT Delhi falls short by 40 per cent of the teachers required, which is the biggest gap between required and actual strength.

One of the major concerns for these institutes is the quality of the teachers, which they cannot compromise on.

These institutes are aware of the shortage and are trying to attract faculty in their own way.

IIT Bombay is contacting potential faculty candidates within the country, from other institutes as well as doing a global hunt. It is inviting professors from top universities, and industry professionals as adjunct and visiting faculty to fill the gaps temporarily. The institute is also taking help from the faculty alumni network to find suitable candidates, apart from the regular advertisement in the newspaper and web portal.

IIT Delhi also did its beat of attracting faculty from across the globe through a roadshow called ‘Unlimited IIT Delhi’. It approached Harvard, MIT, Princeton, University of Houston and Stanford University to get the potential faculty. It showed them the achievements of the institute and the facilities they would get as IIT teachers.

IIM Lucknow is starting a faculty development centre at Noida, to deal with the shortage. The centre is to be unveiled on coming Teachers’ Day.

This shortage of teachers can be solved if older IITs have more PhD graduates, who can serve as faculty at these training institutes. The trends also suggest that, the number of students going abroad to study in universities has declined over the years, which means they are now pursuing their PhDs in India only.

The shortage is basically in certain specialised courses, for which getting a potential faculty is harder.

IIT Mandi is the only IIT, which is not facing a shortage. This is due to their unique academic culture, which is more focussed on practical than lectures. Due to more emphasis on doing things practically they need fewer lectures, and thus, few teachers.