IIT Council discussed cutting staff numbers: Education Ministry

NEW DELHI: Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' today chaired the Council of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) where he urged IITs to adopt one-IIT-one-thrust area approach to research, basing it on local needs. The possibility of rationalising staff numbers also came up at the meeting, according to the education ministry's statement.

During the meeting, the emphasis was also laid on increasing mobility of faculty between IITs and Industry and four working groups have been set up to guide the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

IIT: Development plan, staff cut

The council considered constituting a task force to review the use of technology at all IITs and also to accelerate the deployment of digital tools. it also discussed "rationalization" of the number staff from current standards to a lower number. "It was also recommended to undertake rationalization of staff from current standards to a lower number," reads the release.

Pokhriyal asked IITs to develop the Institute Development Plan following the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to improve the mobility of faculty between institution and Industry. “The mobility of faculty members and industry experts between technical institutes and industry will promote collaborations between industry and academia,” he added.

On the basis of the recommendation of the chairman of the standing committee for the IIT Council, four working groups have been constituted for implementation of the recommendations under the NEP-2020. Group-1- Graded Autonomy, empowered and accountable BoG and Director; Group-2- Grooming distinguished academics for the directorship of IITs; Group-3- Reform and restructuring of the academic senate and Group-4- innovative funding mechanisms.

The reports of these groups and also of a new group that will work on faculty development will be presented in a meeting to be chaired by Pokhriyal.

The council also put up for consideration a suggestion to arrange an online IIT research and development fair to showcase the quality research work being done by IITs before industry.

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