IIM, IIT Faculty Crunch: Who’s the Culprit?

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IIM, IIT Faculty Crunch: Who's the Culprit?

May 26,2011

Union Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh has sparked a controversy saying that, IIT and IIM are excellent due to their students and not faculty. The minister’s remark has triggered a controversy drawing immense criticism from academicians and politicians from opposition parties.

Though what minister had said has been repeatedly held by the students of these premier institutes, in a lower tone rather.

In June 2007, a CNN IBN report said, “Studying at the premier IIM institutes may fetch you multiple zeros at the end of your salary figure. But teaching here certainly does not. With meager salaries and irregular revisions by the pay commission, IIMs are likely to face a crunch in quality faculty soon.”

The same report quoted Anindya Sen, Professor at IIM Calcutta, “It is becoming increasingly difficult to get quality faculty for IIMs. Part of the reason is the low salaries. Talented people out there have plenty of opportunities to look for. They don’t see teaching at IIMs attractive anymore.”

“There is a lot of world class technology and research these institutions have developed. There is always a scope of improvement, though the minister has raised an inappropriate issue, he looked at the negative side of it, but there are a lot more positive things too,” IIM Ahmedabad Professor Anil K Gupta told CoolAvenues.com.

“There is no doubt that these institutions attract some of the best students, but teaching bright students is no less challenging. Having said that, I will concede the point that there is a great deal of improvement which needs to be brought about in the quality of research and teaching at these institutions,” Professor Gupta added.

If a majority of people are differing with what Jairam Ramesh has said, there are lot many whose views echo with the minister. “My faculty experience was average; since we had a smaller batch size. But I agree to the fact that these b-schools have a good name just because of the quality of students they are admitting. Other IIMs have larger batch sizes and thus the star faculty is not easily approachable,” says an IIM Alumnus (name undisclosed).

Both IIT and IIM are centrally funded institutes and thus bureaucracy and political intervention is much prevailing in these institutions. “Most of the faculty at these government institutions has a political backing and we have seen that people with political backing are recruited as faculty, say brother-in-law of a politician being recruited as a faculty, no matter how eligible they are,” he added.

While some blame bureaucracy and political intervention, Prasar Sharma, an IIM Bangalore alumnus says that, meager salaries the faculty of these premier institutions is being paid is keeping them from delivering the knowledge they have, to their students. “Most of the faculties at these B-Schools are foreign educated, so there is no point saying that they are not world class,” adds Sharma.

Concluded.

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