Reforms in IITs: IIT Council

In News

Recently, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Council has set up four committees to explore a range of governance reforms for the IITs, in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommendations.

Background

• In 2018, the Ministry of Education set up a seven-member panel to explore the feasibility of diluting government control over the IITs.
• The Anandkrishnan committee sought powers similar to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to appoint their own institute heads and chairmen.
• The four committees were set up in December 2020 on the basis of the recommendation of the Chairman of the Standing Committee for IIT Council, on the issues related to NEP-2020.

Four Committees

• Group-1: Graded Autonomy, Empowered and Accountable BoG and Director
  • It was suggested to give graded autonomy to the Board of Governors (BoG) of six IITs in 2021.
  • However, there were no discussions on the nature of independence.
  • This is the second attempt at exploring the possibility of giving more autonomy to the BoG at IITs.
• Group-2: Grooming Distinguished Academics for the Directorship of IITs
  • It will explore creating a talent pool of IIT professors with the potential to become a director and groom them for the top job.
  • This will help save the time taken by an institute director to evolve as an academic leader.
• Group-3: Reform and Restructuring of the Academic Senate
  • It will look into restructuring the Senate at each IIT.
    • The Senate is the highest decision-making body of an IIT for all academic purposes.
    • All permanent teachers are members of the Senate.
  • It was suggested to reform the body’s membership citing the huge number of teachers who are part of the Senate.
  • The Senate of the older IITs has grown too large in size for effective decision-making.
• Group-4: Innovative Funding Mechanisms
  • It will look at innovative methods through which the IITs can raise funds outside of government grants.

Other Recommendations

• Rationalisation of Staff from current standards to a lower number.
• Discussions on reducing non-essential manpower, given the increasing digitisation of administrative responsibilities, and outsourcing of departments such as maintenance, housekeeping and transport.
• It was recommended to constitute a task force to review the use of technology at all IITs and also to accelerate the deployment of digital tools.
  • Digital Transformation using blockchain, Artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Cloud Computing (CC) at IITs were also discussed.
• The Council also asked to consider a suggestion to organise Online IIT Research and Development (R&D) fair to showcase the quality research work being done by IITs to the industries.
• IITs have been suggested to develop Institute Development Plans as envisioned in NEP 2020 to improve the mobility of faculty between institution and industry to promote research collaborations.

Significance

• These will help IITs to achieve the global rankings by 2022, the 75th Year of India’s Independence.
• IITs as multi-disciplinary institutions for holistic growth in all disciplines of education will allow them to not lose their main focus on scientific research and technology development.
• The mobility of faculty members and industry experts between technical institutes and industry will promote collaborations between academia and industry.
• The IITs can become a driving force behind realising the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat which is clear after their remarkable contribution in combating the Covid-19 by way of new scientific research.

Source: TH