Faculty scarcity at IITs threatens knowledge capital

NEW DLEHI: After a potential scarcity in knowledge workers, the government

now faces a bigger challenge of having to deal with a possible shortfall in

faculty members, a critical component for churning out knowledge workers.

Though the problem relating to the potential shortfall in knowledge workers

has been widely discussed in the media and among decision-makers, the country

will now have to focus its attention on the possible shortfall in the qualified

faculty members. According to McKinsey & Co study, the estimated shortfall

will be around of 4,500 teachers in the IT field.

The total number of IT professionals stands at 300,000 as of today. The

number is expected to swell to 800,000 by 2005 and to 2.2 million by 2008 if we

are to achieve our target of $87 billion of software exports during the same

period. Thus by 2005, we face a potential shortfall of 500,000 professionals.

"These are conservative figures and do not take into account the

shortfall that can arise due to attrition or migration," says McKinsey and

Co., principal, Vipul Tuli. Approximately 55,000 engineers graduate annually,

excluding MCAs and graduates from private institutes. To meet the projected

figure of the industry's requirement, we need to at least triple the scale of

output from the IITs, IIITs, RECs, and the top 50 engineering colleges.

To achieve the result, we would require a faculty workforce of 9,000, the

availability of which is expected to be only around 4,500. This is an

approximate figure as we have taken into account the number of people who

register for post-graduate and PhD programs.

The problem



A couple of things need to be put in perspective to understand the problem.
Post-graduate programs that are the breeding grounds for potential faculty

members are offered only in the top institutes, such as the IITs and the IISc.

Other Institutes just do not have the infrastructure to support higher technical

education. According to Tuli of McKinsey, nearly 60 percent of the engineering

PhDs come from these institutes. "We need to extend the facility for

providing higher technical education to more institutes. Currently it is only

the IITs and IISc that are the main centers for higher academic work," says

Dr RS Sirohi, Director IIT Delhi.

Academics is no longer an attractive proposition for engineering graduates

from premier institutes. According to McKinsey, in most IITs, 30 per cent of the

senior faculty members are due for retirement in the next five years. A more

worrisome trend is that faculty members below the age of 35 will be only 15 in

number in a typical IIT scenario - an indication that fewer youngsters are

opting for teaching as profession. The general ratio of age group and the number

of faculty members in IIT is given as follows: Below 35: 15; Between 35-45: 105;

Between 45-55: 135 and above 55 years: 115.

The ratio may not provide an entirely accurate picture, if we analyze the

issue from another perspective. Most IITs were established between 1955-65

during which the bulk of the faculty members were appointed and therefore most

of the teachers are in the higher age group. Nonetheless, monetary gains is one

reason why academics is a not a choice among the youngsters today.

Consider the difference in the salary package between what a fresh graduate

and an experienced professor takes home. While a fresh graduate from IIT can

earn anywhere between Rs 5-6 lakh per annum in the industry, a professor at IIT

would earn around Rs 3 lakh per annum after years of service. Add this to the

changing socio-cultural values wherein academics is no longer considered as a

career.

As a result, over the past decade, quality students who opt for higher

studies have declined, a fact corroborated by Sirohi. "Unfortunately, the

quality of students who register for post graduate courses are not of high

standard which in the long run can have an adverse impact on the quality of

students that we produce."

This is beginning to reflect on the quality of work undertaken at these

institutes. According to the McKinsey study, during the period 1993-98, while

IIT faculties were mentioned only 2-3 times in international journals, MIT

engineering faculty was quoted 45 times and a Stanford University faculty member

was cited 52 times.

Or for that matter, IITs have only 3-6 patents to its credit while MIT has

102 patents and Standford has 64 patents to its credit. However, Dr Sirohi

defers in this regard, "It is not that our faculty here are not doing

quality work. But there is definitely a lack of awareness about patents amongst

the faculty. However, we now hold educative sessions about patents so there

should be an improvement in these figures."

But the under-performance of these premier institutes can be directly

attributed to the amount of funds available at its disposal. Compared to the

purchasing power parity (PPP) of institutes in India with the universities

abroad, IITs in India get Rs 80 crore annually as against Rs 400 crore for

Stanford University and the University of Berkley, California, and Rs 200 crore

for Seoul University. Further more, the research grant available (on the PPP) to

a faculty is Rs 15 lakh per year, as against Rs 110 lakh to an academician in

MIT and Rs 100 lakh to an academician at the Stanford University.

The remedies



Considering the present scenario, much needs to be done on a war footing to make
academics an attractive proposition for bright youngsters. The first step in

this direction is increasing the grants to the institutes. McKinsey says that

the component of government funding should be drastically increased to Rs 120

crore, which is double the existing amount at Rs 60 crore.

This apart, the other sources of funds comprising private funding, government

sponsored research which currently account for about Rs 20-Rs 30 crore should be

increased to Rs 280 crore approximately. In the US, a major source of funding

for the Universities is government-sponsored research.

The Indian government, in comparison, has a budget allocation of Rs 15,000

crore annually for research projects. But most of the projects are dispersed

among government-owned organizations like DRDO, Center for Biotechnology

Research and the like. "Even if 5 per cent of that allocation goes to IITs,

it works out to Rs 750 crore divided among the six IITs at Rs 125 crore per

year. And the rest of the funds can be sourced from private players," says

Tuli.

Secondly, it is imperative to establish closer cooperation between the

academic world and the industry. Much of the research that is being carried out

in the institutes remains confined only to the laboratories. There is an urgent

need to bring such research into the commercial world and make them viable

projects.

According to a senior faculty member of IIT, Delhi, "The problem here is

that the academic world comes up with front-line ideas, but in the absence of

closer interaction with the industry, it has no audience to demonstrate these

ideas." Cooperation between the industry and the academic community will

benefit the industry to a large extent as a lot of basic groundwork for the

launch of any new technology in the US comes from university laboratories. In

fact, American majors like Intel and IBM routinely scout university campus for

joint collaborative work, he said.

Another requirement is the need to given more autonomy in the day to day

functioning of such institutes. A lot of entrepreneurial spirit is nipped at the

bud due to the amount of paper work involved in the process. There are only

stray cases where faculty members venture to take their invention into the world

like Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT, Chennai, or the recent moves at IISc,

Bangalore, by a section of members to establish a venture in biotechnology. Says

Tuli: "You will be surprised with the kind of paperwork that is required to

start a venture. An academician does not have the time or the inclination to go

through all the clearances unless he has the zeal to do so."

The lack of entrepreneurial zeal amongst Indians in general and faculty in

particular is another area of concern. Says Dr Sirohi: "Culturally, we lack

the entrepreneurial spirit. It has only been since the IT revolution that some

of our ex-students have launched successful ventures on their own." With

time however, the spirit is expected to permeate others in the campus.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to create an environment where the faculty is

lured by the prospect of making projects more commercial.

The government, in all its earnestness, has done its bit. The recommendations

of the Task Force pending before the government include increasing the

student-teacher ratio from 1:25 to 1:30 in the IITs and the RECs. Although the

AICTE recommendations suggest that the ratio be maintained at 1:15, in reality,

the ratio stands at an average of 1:45. The Task Force also has suggested

allowing ‘Adjunct Faculty’, which means people from the industry can double

up as part-time faculty members.

Addressing the issuing of increasing the output of students, the Task Force

has recommended that the intake of students in RECs, IITs and other engineering

colleges should double in the next year and triple in the next two years. But

this may not be possible considering the existing infrastructure may not support

the additional students. The other alternative is to increase the number of

colleges and Institutes. Nasscom's suggestion for increasing the availability of

knowledge workers is to set up of IIITs and RECs in every state.