Friday, May 30, 2008

A smart move by Gujarat, Orissa and Punjab governments


As per the original plan (advertised on the IIT-JEE site), the new IITs in AP, Bihar and Rajasthan were to start their academic programs this year, and admit their first batch of students this August. In an interesting new move, the IITs in Gujarat, Punjab and Orissa have also asked for, and obtained, the go ahead for taking students this August. The interesting thing is this: in the name of 'mentoring', the students of these new IITs will be taught at one of the existing IITs (see also) this year. So, extra students and extra work for those IIT professors teaching first year courses!

I would say the governments of Gujarat, Orissa and Punjab have made a very smart move, which makes "their" IITs a reality. They seem to have realized that the announcement about the IITs in those states was just that: an announcement. Those who remember the fate of IISER - Bhubaneswar and IISER - Chennai would know what I'm talking about.

By acting quickly to get their IITs off the ground, Gujarat, Orissa and Punjab have eliminated the possibility of nasty surprises.

3 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    Seems IIT Indore got late, though there is some land search going on by Indore collector Vivek Agrawal right now.

  2. Anonymous said...

    I heard from a friend that IIT Kanpur is going to take students from Rajasthan IIT for their first year course. Moreover to accommodate extra students some of the faculty members have been asked to vacate their residence which will be converted to ad-hoc hostels.
    So, in addition to extra teaching load, these faculty members have to now look for accommodation elsewhere. Institutes solution to moving faculty members with families is visitors-hostel!
    Faculty members in IITs are underpaid as such. Amenities provided by IITs, like accommodation etc. make up for that to some extent and now that too is being taken away.
    Way to go IITs!

  3. Abi said...

    Anon 2: Stop spreading totally unfounded rumours. Given the media hype (and hostility) about this government's move to create new IITs, anything like this would have come out by now. So, if you have any evidence for faculty members being asked to make way for the extra students, give us a link.

    I suggest that you take your faux-pity for the IIT faculty elsewhere.