In his Economic Times op-ed, Pankaj Jalote mentions Georgia Tech as a possible model for the IITs to emulate:
It is time for IITs to start aspiring to become world class technical institutes both in quality and quantity, and both in teaching and research. Each IIT should aspire to be like Georgia Tech and have about 20,000 students, 1,000 faculty members, large research staff, and many more programmes and disciplines.
Imagine what will be the impact of these institutions on industry as well as on the youth of the country if we have this type of capacity. If this target is set, and support provided to upgrade the infrastructure and redesign the campuses to handle this scale, there is no reason why it cannot be achieved in about 10 to 15 years.
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In an earlier piece (from May 2005), Jalote suggested several other possibilities for IITs' evolution. Looks like he has settled down on the Georgia Tech model. I prefer the Real University model myself.
Now this, to my mind, is a much more productive debate rather than all the tinkering with JEE.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I find myself in agreement with you about having more of "real" universities.
Making a real university out of the IITs would require a change in the DNA of the institutes. I really dont think that is possible, even MIT has not managed to do that.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of the Vedanta university sounds more feasible. They have prepared plans for the campus and are just about starting to hire the administration. They have a too, kinda sparse and vague presently.