Archive for the ‘Education at IITs’ Category
Why IITs fared so badly in world university rankings
Days after Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) failed to make it to the top 200 in the prestigious QS rankings of the world’s leading universities, top IIT officials have admitted that it was their indifference to the ranking process and not an intrinsic lack of educational quality that cost them dearly. “We have been complacent. We never really took rankings seriously,” Indranil Manna, Director, IIT-Kanpur admitted. “We are doing so now. The government is urging us to be more proactive.” Highly placed IIT officials said the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) has also pulled up the IITs for this.
“IITs are much better than what the rankings suggest, but they are too arrogant to participate and give data,” said TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education and former director on Infosys board. He is also the honorary chairman of Indian Centre for Assessment & Accreditation (ICAA), a private accreditation body that is now working on India-specific university rankings.
The QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) rankings are widely recognised as a good measure of the pedigree of universities. Last week, when the MHRD allowed foreign universities to set up campuses here, it ruled that only the other such rankings could do so. Accusing the IITs of living in an ivory tower and not engaging enough, Pai said the institutes owe it to India to give full information, participate in rankings and put out their best. “They need to market themselves,” he said.
When the QS ranking process was underway, IITs sent only the names of full-time faculty members who are on their rolls. US universities included research associates, people from industry, part-time faculty — everyone, who has taught even for a short time. This had a bearing on the rankings as faculty-student ratio was given a 20% weightage. So did citations, which contribute 20% of the overall QS score, and is calculated using data from SciVerse Scopus, a database of academic journal articles. Foreign universities put in all possible permutations and combinations of the faculty member/institute’s names to facilitate an easier search. Indian institutes were unaware of the need for this.
Similarly, any institute can send names of people associated with it to help QS send questionnaires to the right people. Foreign institutes send 400-500 names; IIT-Kanpur, for instance, sent only 28. Without this QS will survey random people. All this cost IITs dearly in the QS global university rankings released last week. “The rankings are based on two factors: surveys and data,” said Devang Khakhar, Director, IIT-Bombay. “(In future) We want to make sure that the correct data is supplied to the ranking agencies.” India Inc employers also argue that IITs must take rankings seriously. “We need to ask whether we are living in a cocoon and not wanting to benchmark with others in the world,” said Pratik Kumar, President, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, and Executive VP-HR at Wipro.
“We have sent our IIT recruits to BCG offices across the world, and they haven’t just survived, they’ve more than held their own and succeeded,” says Sachin Nandgaonkar, Senior Partner & Director, Boston Consulting Group, who heads the consulting firm’s recruitment initiatives. He is an IIT Bombay-IIM Ahmedabad alumnus. “Having said that, given that our output is globally comparable, I’d like IITs to come out strongly in the surveys.” IIT-Delhi has kicked into action and put up a plan to avoid a repeat next year. “We have decided to put together a three-member committee, which will deal with the whole rankings business,” said SK Koul, Deputy Director (Strategy & Planning), IIT-Delhi.
IIT-Bombay has identified a nodal person who will collate the information from various departments and send it to QS in the required form. “Even though I have certain reservations about the way rankings are put together, we have to admit that we need to do better,” says IIT-Kanpur’s Manna. “It’s not about numbers, it’s about our convictions.”
Source: The Economic Times, September 17, 2013
IITs plan to increase student intake by 60%
The Council of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) on Monday decided to increase the number of students admitted to the prestigious engineering schools by 60%, market brand IIT in India and elsewhere, and engage with global ranking agencies to improve the standing of the schools. At the same time, the council, the apex decision making body of the 16 IITs, signalled that the schools would remain independent of government interference.
The decisions come on the heels of Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd’s (QS) ranking of the world’s top 200 universities which showed not a single Indian institution in the list. A separate list of the top 200 Asian institutions had 11 Indian entities, with three in the top 50. IIT-Delhi was at 38, IIT-Bombay at 39, and IIT-Madras 49.
The Council, whose members include all IIT directors, chairmen of their board of governors’ chairmen, some industrialists and the human resource development (HRD) minister, decided that the IITs would not be reviewed by the National Accreditation Board (NAB) and that the directors of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) would have no say in the appointment of IIT directors any more—both moves designed to reiterate and reinforce the autonomy of the schools.
“The council decided that since IITs are brands, their internal review will be given to NAB and it will be accepted as accreditation. NAB won’t be able to sent its team to assess the IITs,” M.M. Pallam Raju, the HRD minister, told reporters in New Delhi.
NAB accreditation is essential for India to be part of the Washington Accord that allows smooth student mobility from Indian engineering institutes to foreign institutes and vice-versa. It also makes Indian engineering degrees equivalent to foreign ones, helps institutes foster better ties in research, curricula and sharing of resources, and also improves a country’s image in the higher education league table.
The decision to increase the number of students in various streams, from average 7,500 per institution to 12,000, over a period of time, is certain to bring cheer to thousands of students who seek admission to the prestigious schools, say analysts. “It will also improve their (the IITs’) earnings (from fees) as well as from non-plan grants from the government,” said Alok Mishra, a director at the HRD ministry. The council said the increase would first happen in the seven older IITs at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Guwahati and Roorkee.
Although recognized around the world for the quality of its graduates, the IITs haven’t really focused on brand-building, said the minister. “Branding and marketing is important for any institute and IITs have not done this by themselves. Now all IITs will devise a way on how to improve their brand equity,” said Raju. Officials in the HRD ministry said the IITs could together even appoint a chief marketing officer to head this initiative.
The Council also decided that the IITs would form a committee comprising administrators and members of the alumni network to engage with ranking agencies such as the UK-based Quacquarelli Symonds and Times Higher Education ranking. “They have to give complete details of their programs, research and curricula. If IITs give everything up-to-date their ranking can improve by 50%,” said a HRD ministry official.
The Council did not decide to hike tuition fees as suggested by a committee headed by the scientist Anil Kakodkar that proposed charging under-graduate students Rs. 250,000 a year. The IITs had increased fees from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 90,000 a year in January. The government spends about Rs. 225,000 on each IIT student every year. “It’s up to the IITs now (to consider a revision),” Raju said.
The Council did not discuss the contentious two-tier admission process to the IITs that is currently before the courts.
Source: Mint, September 17, 2013
In a first, girls among IIT entrance test toppers
If Sibbala Leena Madhuri is aware of having made history, she’s not showing it. The 16 year-old, originally from Thirupathi and now based in Hyderbad, is one of the first two girls ever to feature in the top 10 ranks of the entrance exam to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Her rank is eighth; the other girl, Aditi Laddha from Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh (Delhi zone),is sixth.
“I thought I would get below rank 20, wasn’t expecting my score to be in the top 10,” says Leena. With a score of 97.9% — Andhra Pradesh board – she assumes she’s in the top 20 percentile. “I think I’ll go to Mumbai or Delhi IIT and will opt for either electronics or computer science.” When she’s not studying, she plays chess and listens to music. Only about 11% of the total number qualifying are women.
Pallerla Sai Sandeep Reddy, 17, Harry Potter-fan and JEE Advanced topper, wants computer science at Mumbai IIT too. But that’s for a start. “Finally I’ll take up robotics,” he says on his way to “college” (high school in Hyderabad) to celebrate. “I didn’t think I’d top before the exam but after, yes,” he says laughing. His exam went that well. Son of a government school teacher of social studies, Sandeep has spent many years away from home in a village near Podili town, Prakasham district, AP. He was staying in hostel in Hyderabad and had completed the entire high-school syllabus by the middle of Class 11. “That way I could devote the next year to preparation. I studied 12 hours,” he says.
The IITs surprised everyone by declaring the results two days before the scheduled June 23. “The reason we are doing this early is because there are many applicants from very remote parts of the country who don’t have internet access and, therefore, don’t get to know their results in time for counseling,” says IIT-Delhi Director, R.K. Shevgaonkar. The IITs will be sending hardcopies of results to the candidates so that those without internet access are not left out. Counseling will start from June 24 and continue till June 30. The physical verification of certificates for the first round of counseling will be done between July 4 and 8.
Of the 152,351 candidates who cleared JEE Mains and were eligible for JEE Advanced, 126,704 registered and even less actually appeared. “One of the reasons for this,” says IIT Delhi’s organizing chairman, H C Gupta, “Is that several states, for instance Gujarat, didn’t conduct state exams and admitted on the basis of JEE Main (held in April) result. Many students who didn’t register or write exam would’ve got into state engineering colleges. Next year, many states have opted for JEE Main including West Bengal, Maharashtra and Haryana.” He further adds that many of the applicants who didn’t write the exam even after registering would be girls – registration for them was free, they registered then didn’t show.
The IITs are calling for counseling 276 SC/ST candidates who will be placed in the one-year “preparatory” course – reintroduced this year – and placed in first year from the next session. This is the first time the entrance exam into the IITs has been conducted in two parts. “For the first time we have to do the pre-preparation for the number of centres for the tests all on the basis of assumptions,” says Gupta. The number of seats has increased at the IITs from 9,647 to 9,885 but the maximum increase has happened at the newer IITs where new courses have been launched.
Source: The Times of India, June 22, 2013
Students in coveted IIT-Bombay departments unhappy lot: Study
Happiness does not have anything to do with getting into the most-sought-after courses in IITs. Instead, it may have an inverse relationship. A survey conducted at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) on the happiness quotient of students reveals that the ones in the computer science engineering and electrical engineering departments are not as happy as their counterparts in other departments. Incidentally, these two courses are most preferred by students in the first year at IIT-B, almost every year.
This year too, IIT-B’s courses in these two branches were among the highest preferred choices. The survey conducted in the institute also shows that the students on the campus, in general too, are not happy as compared to the average individual’s happiness score (4.3). While the average happiness on the campus is found to be 3.43, girls are slightly on the better side, with 3.44, but boys on the campus are lower than average, with a score of 3.34.
The survey was conducted using the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire developed by psychologists Michael Argyle and Peter Hills at Oxford University as it is considered as the accurate technique to measure psychological well-being.
In the department wise survey, aerospace (3.76), civil (3.67), energy (3.64) departments managed to get a better average than the chemistry (3.40), chemical (3.34), electrical (3.29) and computer science (3.27) departments in the happiness survey. Metallurgical (3.49) and mechanical (3.45) departments take the middle positions. Students in the electrical and computer science departments are the least happy on the campus. The survey also shows that 80% students agree to ‘there is a gap between what I would like to do and what I have done’ question.
Statistics taken of students from each year, revealed that students are happiest in their third year (3.56), though not happier than the average score. The lowest score was achieved by students in the second year (3.21). A student on the campus claimed that ‘the pressure factor hits students only after clearing the first year, which could be one reason why they are not happy in their second year’.
The survey which was conducted by Akhil Srivatsan for the institute’s in-house students’ magazine had more than 200 respondents, with at least 10-15 on an average from each department. “We wanted to conduct this survey at our institute to check the average lifestyle of an individual on the campus. On how the life is going on the campus. The Oxford questionnaire was already available to us, so we picked up specific questions which were also true for students on the campus and conducted the survey,” said chief editor of the magazine, Saideep Sudi.
Some of the questions included how optimistic students feel about their future and how happy they are based on the departments they belong to. “Though we don’t claim that the figures could be exact depiction of the reality, we tried to have quite a representation from each year and from each department.
Source: The Times of India, June 26, 2012
325 IIT aspirants to get seats; not choice of course, institute
The IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) and other centrally-funded educational institutions will now have to put on hold the minorities sub-quota following the Supreme Court order. Students in this category who had already been counseled are likely to lose their choice of course or the IIT. IIT-JEE (Joint Entrance Exam) organizing committee chairman Prof G B Reddy said, “The minority quota will not be implemented this year but all the students who have been shortlisted will be accommodated in the OBC quota list. The first list for allocation of seats will be released on Thursday.”
There are a total of 9,647 seats in different IITs including 4,722 for the general category students. A total 17,464 candidates were shortlisted for counseling this year. Under the proposed sub-quota, 441 seats were reserved for minorities, but only 325 candidates were shortlisted.
Former member secretary to the National Commission for Backward Classes P S Krishnan denied that the sub-quota was worked out for religious considerations. He said, “The sub-quota from the OBC quota is not based on religion. It seeks to reserve seats for those from a religion or caste who are socially and educationally backward as well.” Krishnan said an indicator of the backwardness within the minority communities was the fact that despite reservation there were not enough deserving candidates who made it to IIT. He referred to the Sachar Committee report that has documented the social and educational backwardness of Muslims in India in extensive details. For instance, while the Muslim population forms 13.4%of the total population, it accounts for only 6.3% of graduates.
The counselling for 15 IITs, Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University (IT-BHU) and the Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad was on till June 10 with the first list being announced on Thursday. The counselling website had been opened for the shortlisted candidates from May 18, giving them a chance to opt the courses of their choice. Online counselling ended on June 10.
The first round of seat allotment will be intimated online through the counselling website on June 14. Seats not accepted in the first round will be allotted on AIR (All India Ranking) basis. The second round of allotment will be done on June 25. The final round of allotment will be done on July 6. This year a total of 479,651 candidates had appeared in both the papers of IIT-JEE, conducted on April 8. Out of the total number of candidates, 24,112 have secured ranks in various categories and 17,462 had been shortlisted for counselling for admission to 9,647 seats in 15 IITs, IT-BHU and ISM-Dhanbad.
Defending the sub-quota, officials cited the Mandal Commission which placed backward Hindus to form 43.7% of the population. At that time, the Hindu population was 83.84% of India. So, 43.70% in 83.84% is same as 52 out of 100. Therefore, the commission applied a rule of the thumb and assumed that the percentage of BCs among non-Hindus would also be 52% of the population of minorities.
Source: The Times of India, June 14, 2012
IIT aspirants fume over errors in JEE
A week after the IIT-JEE (Indian Institutes of Technology-Joint Entrance Exam) was held across the country, students are now raising doubts over a question carrying three marks in the Physics section of paper-II. Although the question was correct, students allege that there was a printing error in the diagram on which it was based. While the question said there was a shaded region in the disc, several students claimed that none of the regions were shaded. But IITs wont give compensation marks as it wasnt a major issue.
Source: The Times of India, April 15, 2012
IITs lift curtain, reveal JEE cut-off marks
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have finally emerged from their veil of secrecy, revealing the cut-off marks for gaining admission through the just-concluded Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE). For the first time in IIT-JEE’s five-decade history, the chain of institutes has revealed the minimum qualifying marks in each subject, and in aggregate form for various categories of students.
While a general category student will have to get 10% in each subject, the minimum qualifying marks would be 9% for other backward class (OBC) students, and 5% for scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST) as well as physically disabled (PD) students. In addition to this, the student would have to clear the aggregate cut to be eligible for being a part of the all-india ranking. While the aggregate cut-off for the general category is 35%, it is 31.5% for OBCS and 17.5% for SC, ST and PD.
This means that if a general category student scores 14 marks out of 136 in all the three subjects — physics, chemistry and mathematics — and has an overall aggregate cut-off of 143 out of 408 marks, he or she will be eligible for the rank. According to IIT professors, providing the qualifying marks will help students evaluate their performance as soon as they leave the IIT-JEE examination centre, and reduce stress on students. It will also help them prepare for the examination, they added.
Welcoming the move, a parent of an aspiring IIT student suggested that the institutes upload the answer keys of the question papers after the examination. “It will further help students evaluate their performance and reduce their dependence on coaching centres,” he said. The decision is an outcome of the Supreme Court’s observations in a case filed by IIT-Kharagpur professor Rajiv Kumar, who was hailed as an unsung hero for bringing transparency into the IIT-JEE examination system.
Source: Hindustan Times, April 11, 2012
500,000 aspirants to sit for IIT-JEE in 2012
In 2008, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) opened themselves to the world; looking for some diversity on campus, they travelled to Dubai and held their brutally competitive Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) there. But the fifth edition of this exam there has nothing to boast about: Candidate count has been around the same; in fact it has fallen this year to 186. In the previous years, students signing up to take the JEE from Dubai hovered around 200 to 220.
On Sunday, this small bunch of students will be joined by another 506,000 teenagers in India for whom taking the JEE has become a staple for signing up for an engineering education. Overall, candidate numbers are up from last year’s 486,000 and the IITs have increased the exam centres to 1,067 this year. But this exam will also probably be the last of the JEEs as we know it. There are close to 9,590 seats spread across 15 IITs and competition will be stiff with 53 candidates battling it out for one seat.
GB Reddy, JEE Chairman, said, “Students are supposed to use a black ball point pen this year and not a pencil. The minimum score that a candidate must get to secure a rank has also been declared.” This year, the IITs have mandated that general category students must get a minimum aggregate score of 35% and at least 10% in each of the individual sections for being on the rank list. Similarly, OBC students must get at least 9% in individual sections and 31.5% in the overall score; for SC/ST, the minimum to be bagged in each section is 5% and 17.5% must be the minimum aggregate to be on the rank-list.
For the last few years, the IITs have had the highest number of students qualifying from the IIT-Bombay zone; it remains to be seen if the new rules on scoring will change that. Under the Bombay zone, student numbers have gone up in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, forcing the IITs to set up additional exam centres, but Pune has seen a drop in applicant numbers. The count of exam centres is up from last year’s 47 to 54 across Maharashtra, with two new centres in Akola and one each in Solapur, Kolhapur and Ratnagiri.
Source: The Times of India, April 7, 2012
New IITs yet to get govt approval, students in a spot
Hundreds of students entered the new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), set up in 2008 expecting a bright future for themselves. But their dreams have hit a roadblock, even as the first batch of BTech students is set to graduate in May. The new institutes are yet to be approved as IITs by the Parliament. As a result, the students graduating this year will not get an IIT degree for the time being.
All IITs are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961. The Act declares them as ‘institutions of national importance’ and specifies their framework for governance, powers and duties. The Gandhinagar campus was among the six IITs set up in 2008. Another two were added the next year.
While the Lok Sabha passed the bill for incorporating the new IITs under the act, it is yet to be cleared by Rajya Sabha. Because of the uncertainty, the IITs are unable to fix a date for their first convocation. Traditionally, IITs host their annual convocations in August. “We are hoping the Parliament moves quickly,” said a director of one of the new IITs. “It takes time to plan a convocation that meets IIT standards.”
The first batch of 30 MTech students of IIT-Hyderabad graduated in 2011. The students are waiting for their degree certificates. Prof. Uday Desai, Director IIT-Hyderabad, said, “We have given the students provisional degree certificates for the time being. With the Lok Savha having cleared the bill, half the job is done. We hope that the Rajya Sabha clears the bill this time.” A total of 160 students will be graduating from the IIT-Hyderabad this year.
Some 600 under-graduate and post-graduate students will be passing out from the new IITs this year. IIT-Gandhinagar has 88 undergraduate students.
Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), February 29, 2012
Single engineering entrance examination likely from 2013
Come February, and the cloud over the issue of conducting a single entrance examination for admissions to engineering institutes may finally be cleared. Directors of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) that Business Standard spoke to said that by the end of February 2012, there may be a consensus on whether to hold a single entrance examination in 2013 and thereon.
The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) held for admissions to the IITs and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) for admission to Centrally-funded technical institutes may be merged to create a single entrance test. “Directors of the IITs, NITs, IIITs and Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs) have been asked to give their feedback. A formal notification on this will be issued next month. Mostly, we are all on the same page,” said an IIT Director on the condition of anonymity.
In September 2011, the IIT Council had accepted the recommendations of the T. Ramaswami Committee report on JEE reforms and proposed a single entrance test for all engineering colleges, including IITs, NITs and other engineering institutions. Key reforms that the committee was looking at include reduction in the number of examinations to one; testing knowledge intensity; alignment to the 12th class syllabus; reduction of dependency on coaching and pressure on students and emphasis on aptitude among other things. IITs say a formal notification will be issued with details of the examination format to be followed by IITs. That is, while considering a student for a seat — whether to give 50 per cent or 60 per cent weightage to the board exams and the rest to IIT-JEE scores.
Centrally-funded technical institutes along with other Deemed Universities and Technical Institutions offer admissions to students through AIEEE. Last year, 10,53,807 candidates took the AIEEE exam out of 11,14,541 registered candidates. Approximately 34,311 seats are there for BE and BTech and 1,070 seats for Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Planning in various institutions. The institutes located in West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi accepted AIEEE scores to admit students. There are four IIITs at Allahabad, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Kanchipuram. Total number of NITs at present is 20. Also, 10 new NITs are proposed to be set up during 11th Five Year Plan. NITs are expected to be at par with other national level technical institutes.
IIT-JEE, say IIT directors, has become a craze among students, largely because of the high-paying jobs one lands after an IIT degree. “Entrance examination is a big racket in our country. And if you want to reduce the number of examinations, then different systems should not be asked to hold different examinations,” said another IIT Director. Last year around 485,00 students — an increase of 6.5 per cent or 30,000 — appeared for the joint entrance examination to seek admission to 9,600 seats on offer in 15 IITs.
Source: Business Standard, January 26, 2012
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