Are IITs - India's Top Institutes Losing their relevance? Find out...

The prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology have completed almost 50 years since their inception and has produced some of the best brains of the country. It has made a huge contribution in producing high standard of technical human capital for India. However, with time it is losing its relevance. These institutes have not changed with the time and are not providing India with what she needs in this highly globalises and competitive times.

Though they were conceptualised as teaching institutes producing the best engineering students, it has not been able to transform itself into research based, innovation driven agents of change for the India that is now emerging.

It is their inability to change that is leading to a decline in infrastructure and strict government control, IITs are slowly and steadily becoming redundant.

Despite enjoying academic autonomy, these institutes lack adequate administrative and financial autonomy. The board is unable to take any independent financial decision which they deem fit without the approval of the government.

Also since IITs take a small number of students every year, they remain small by global comparison. As per a report in The Times of India, they are between 6,000-9,000 students in size, with an annual intake of about 500 PhDs, and about 1,000 undergraduates. Overall, the 15 IITs graduate 7000 undergraduates, 6000 post graduates and about 1700 PhDs annually.

This small intake of students every year will further lead to a decline in output. Contrast this with China. The Asian giant today has about 1,000 universities, each between 25,000 to 40,000 students, running fully residential courses, turning out over 50,000 PhDs annually. By the way Chinese education system is progressing; it will not be a surprise if it will overtake the United States as the world centre of higher education.

Though the seats in IITs have increased over the years, it has not kept up with the increase in population. 10 years ago the IITs made up about 10% of India's engineering output of human capital. Today they are less then 2% and declining further.

As per experts, certain changes in the education sector are the need of the hour. These changes involve total independence to the IITs, driven by a board of governors with a new vision, accountability through public opinion and transparency. IITs should try to meet its infrastructural needs and hire more foreign faculty. However, the government is resistant to bring about these changes for the fear that it will lose control. The private sector should be encouraged to set up "innovation universities" and there should be more competition for Indian universities in form of foreign institutions.

Though there is fear that these foreign institutions may lead to internal brain drain, there are experts who feel that this will just offer choice to students and ensure higher quality of education in India.