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Amend law to allow foreign faculty: IITs
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 23 December 2008, 18:19 IST
Chennai: The panacea to the plunging levels of faculty that affect the working of the premier institutions of the country, the Indian Institute of Technology, could lie in allowing foreign faculty to stay and teach in the institute, according to the directors of the seven IITs. They have also sought a modification in the IIT Act, 1961, that could enable them to achieve this.
"Studies have shown that over 70 percent of Nobel laureates in the US were foreign nationals working in the country. The US reaped huge benefits by allowing foreigners to teach and research in their nation. We should not overlook the opportunity. The Act of Parliament has to be modified to allow foreign nationals to become faculties in the IITs," said Ananth, Director, IIT-Madras. This issue was identified as the single largest setback for its operation at the fifth annual Pan-IIT that concluded recently at Chennai.
Though educational bodies are in a constant process of recruitment, losing talent to multinational companies has proved to be a headache. "The Indian government wants to keep the IITs, IAS and IPS all-Indian, but it wont help the country evolve its own future. Think tanks have to be global to tackle strategic challenges and threats and make use of the opportunities," mentioned Stephen Cohen, senior fellow, Brookings Institution and noted author.
"At least 1000 Indian PhDs graduate in the USA every year. But, how do we attract them to work in India? That remains to be the biggest difficulty," informed Pankaj Jalote, professor of the department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT-Delhi. According to Ananth, an autonomous IIT, fully free to choose its courses is also a step in rectifying the issue. "At a personal level, I would like to see IITs having a course in medicine as well. We have already started it in a small way. We have 20 doctors in IIT-M working as faculties. This (offering courses in medicine) will increase the right-brain activity and offer holistic science education to IITians and also make them more creative," he added.