Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar is planning to bring in teachers from foreign universities to meet the near 40% faculty shortage at Indian Institutes of Technology campuses. He has proposed holding "Teach for India" fairs abroad to put together a database of potential faculty and invite them for teaching assignments at IITs, The Economic Times reported.
The move is part of the Centre's efforts to get international academic rankings for IITs. The proposal includes plans to ease the process of procuring visas for professors and also for a recruitment team to hand out appointment letters at the fairs.
Moreover, Javadekar is expected to pitch a scheme to identify the 1,000 best Bachelor of Technology students from top-ranked engineering colleges and admit them directly for PhD courses. They will also propose enrolling BTech graduates from IITs who have job experience and are keen to join PhD programmes, The Times of India reported.
This idea also stems from the need to resolve the shortage of faculty at the institutes, a ministry authority said. "When it comes to hiring teachers, IITs are very selective. The need is to improve the quality of PhD and attract bright IIT students to undertake research," an official said. The HRD Ministry plans to offer BTech students attractive scholarships to lure them to opt for PhD courses.
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