PREAMBLE
Brief History of the Review Committee The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) five of them in all-are located at Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur and Delhi. They are governed by a common IIT Act. Under Section 9(2) of the Act, the President of India, in his capacity as the Visitor of the IITs, is empowered to appoint one or more persons to review the work and progress of these Institutes.
Appointment of the Review Committee The IITs have completed nearly a quarter of a century of existence. The President of India, in his capacity as the Visitor, appointed this Committee, to review the work and progress of these Institutes all together and recommend the lines on which they should develop in the future.
Distinctive Features The distinctive feature of this Review Committee is that the present one is a single Committee for all the IITs unlike the earlier Review Committees. We did not, therefore, make any specific recommendations for each IIT, as our terms of reference are for IITs as a whole. However, we have taken into consideration presentations made by each IIT and a number of large groups of academic and other interests from each IIT. The total recommendations, therefore, are to be looked upon as recommendations for the development of the five IITs as a whole.
While we examined the IITs as a whole in all their facets, there were a number of other Committees which looked into one or other feature only but in great depth and sometimes, laterally with other Institutions and Colleges. Since the last review made between 1971- 1973, many changes have taken place. Still more are likely in the years to come in the socioeconomic climate and technological needs of the country. The IITs have to respond to these changes effectively, in the larger and long term interests of the country.
Terms of Reference The terms of reference given to us have a wide range of academic review and such related matters as finance and its management, governance of the IIT system, management structure and other relevant support systems, needed to enable the IITs to perform their functions in accordance with their charter.
Methodology: Collection, Study and Analysis of Reports/Opinions At the first meeting of the Committee we discussed the terms of reference to see whether these require any modification or expansion. In this meeting we had also invited the Education Secretary and other officers from the then Ministry of Education to interact with us, In the second meeting, we discussed the tasks involved. Several ways and means were also discussed to collect data/information from the IITs. The question of interaction within institutions/organisations/ individuals and user Industry and other user groups connected with the functioning of IITs was also discussed at length.
Before visiting these IITs we had familiarised ourselves with the background material on the basis of reports and documents presented earlier by several other committees mentioned below:
Development of Higher Technical Shri N.R. Sarkar
Institutions in India (1948)
Indian Institute of Technology Passed by the Parliament
Act (1956)
Reports of the last Review Committees Under the chairmanship of
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- IIT Kharagpur (1973) Shri G. Pande
- IIT Bombay (1972) Dr.H.N Sethna
- IIT Madras (1971) Prof.P.L.Bhatnagar
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- IIT Kanpur (1973) Dr. S. Bhagavantam
- IIT Delhi (1973) Shri M.R. Chopra
In addition to the above, we also studied the reports of the following special committees;
Committee on Chairman
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Equipment(1976) Shri P. Sahai
Foreign Technical Assistance (1980) Prof. Y. Nayudamma
Postgraduate Education and Research (1980) Prof. Y. Nayudamma
Reviewing of Centres of Advanced Dr. M.G.K.Menon
Studies in IITs (1981)
Apart from these reports, we also perused the following documents prepared/circulated by the Member-Secretary during the course of conducting review:
- Visitor's orders on the report of the previous Review Committees.
- Series of Study Papers prepared by the Member- Secretary based on the material received from various sources focussing on one or other important issues pertaining to IITs.
- Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis. These were prepared by each IIT and circulated to us which helped us to identify a number of issues that deserve to be looked into.
-Information received from each IIT giving status position on (a), (b) and (c) of the terms of reference.
-IITs' response to the questionnaire framed by us on special aspects.
-IITs' response to clarifications requested from them.
-Statistical information on basic data received from each IIT.
To elicit opinion/views of those who may have at some time or the other some interface or impact with the IITs, a set of issues were spelt out in the form of questionnaires and mailed to those individuals/ organisations in India and abroad to whom each such questionnaire pertained. Individuals addressed abroad were mainly Alumni of the IITs and the Experts who had helped the IITs in their early stages of development. The public at large were also requested through national Newspapers to express their views about the role of the IITs. A number of responses were received. These responses were studied, analysed, summarised and circulated to members.
We spent two days in each IIT and held detailed discussions with different representative groups. The programme of the visit to the IITs was structured well in advance and was widely advertised within and outside the IIT campus.
During the visits the structure of discussion in each IIT covered invariably representatives coming from the following groups:
- IIT Council Members-past and present
-Chairmen of Boards-past and present
-Board Members-past and present
- Directors-past and present
- Deans-past and present
- Industrialists and Businessmen
- Senate
- Faculty Groups
- Representatives of Students and Research Scholars including SC/ST students
- Representatives of Alumni Associations
- Representatives of Employees Association (including Faculty Association, Technical Staff, Nonacademic Staff and SC/ST Employees)
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- Representatives of the Regional Committees of the AICTE, Apprenticeship Boards and other Technical Institutions in each region
- Mess employees
- Individual memorialists and those who responded to the advertisement made through the press
Limitations of our Report - In this report we confine ourselves to the terms of reference which is mainly an "academic review" of the IITs and such relevant issues pertaining to academic matters. Other issues which do not have a close relevance to academic activities yet brought before us by Associations/Unions etc. were not taken up for review and comments.
- We mainly examined issues on the basis of written or oral evidences presented before us. We had on no occasion doubted the presentation or checked their veracity.
- A number of studies such as migration of students abroad or development of publication indices of research staff could not be carried out by the Committee and our conclusions are based on our overall understanding of these issues, though towards the end of our tasks, we received a report from Association of Indian Universities on some of these aspects.
- Similarly, the plan provisions needed by the IITs for development in Seventh Five Year Plan is again based not on our detailed study but on global understanding of the problems in the IITs, as presented by the respective IITs.
- Generally speaking, our report is the result of deliberations on the advice received by us on issues that we raised with many in the field both within and outside the IIT system.
- We also drew our conclusions on some issues through the reports submitted by other expert committees such as the Postgraduate Committee Report, Menon Committee Report on assessment of Centres.
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NOTE: The para numbers referred to at the end of each recommendation are the same as in the Report of the Committee.
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