The Council members of all 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are meeting with human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday to chart out their next growth path including planning a strategy to break into the top 100 global university rankings.
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The state is preparing for the inauguration of IIT Dharwad on August 28, 2016.
HRD Minister Javadekar will inaugurate the transit campus of IIT Dharwad at Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) in Dharwad and will also interact with the students. “For undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral courses, IITs admit up-to 72,000 students”.
To increase the number of global students in IITs, the council will take up the proposal to allow students from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Singapore, the UAE and Ethiopia to directly appear for the JEE (advanced) test, skipping the JEE (main) that Indian students have to take. “The need is to improve the quality of PhD and attract bright IIT students to undertake research”, an official said. The number would be gradually increased by 10,000 per year, so that it can reach 1 lakh by 2020.
The move aims at encouraging IITians passing out of B.Tech to enroll in Ph.D courses straightaway.
Another decision taken by the council is to introduce an induction course to help new students adjust as they join these institutes after a rigorous competitive examination.
The IIT Council has also given its nod to a “pilot” run of an aptitude test, the officials said, adding that the modalities will be worked out.
Out of the 10,576 students who got admission to IITs, 5,539 (52.4 percent) had not taken any coaching classes and had studied for the tough exam on their own.
Another scheme which was approved the Council is “Vishwajeet” which will help IITs to secure top ranks globally.
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There is a strong realisation in the government that innovation is necessary to increase productivity and raise overall standards of our country, and quality research is needed for innovation, sources said.
