Indian Institutes of Technology
 | |
Other name
| IIT or IITs (plural) |
|---|---|
| Type | Public universities |
| Established | 15 September 1956 via Indian Institute of Technology Act 1956 |
| Location |
23 places in India
|
| Language | English |
| Website | www |
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous public institutes of higher education, located in India.[1] They are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 which has declared them as institutions of national importance and lays down their powers, duties, and framework for governance.[2][3] The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 lists twenty-three institutes.[4] Each IIT is autonomous, linked to the others through a common council (IIT Council), which oversees their administration. The Minister of Human Resource Development is the ex officio Chairperson of the IIT Council.[5] As of 2018, the total number of seats for undergraduate programs in all IITs is 11,279.[6]
Contents
List of institutes[edit]
| No. | Name | Abbreviation | Founded | Campus Area | State/UT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IIT Kharagpur | IITKGP | 1951 | 850 ha (2,100 acres) | West Bengal | |
| 2 | IIT Bombay | IITB | 1958 | 220 ha (550 acres) | Maharashtra | |
| 3 | IIT Madras | IITM | 1959 | 250 ha (617 acres) | Tamil Nadu | |
| 4 | IIT Kanpur | IITK | 1959 | 450 ha (1,100 acres)[9] | Uttar Pradesh | |
| 5 | IIT Delhi | IITD | 1961 | 132 ha (325 acres) | Delhi | |
| 6 | IIT Guwahati | IITG | 1994 | 280 ha (700 acres) | Assam | |
| 7 | IIT Roorkee | IITR | 1847 | 148 ha (365 acres) | Uttarakhand | |
| 8 | IIT Ropar | IITRPR | 2008 | 203 ha (501 acres) | Punjab | |
| 9 | IIT Bhubaneswar | IITBBS | 2008 | 379 ha (936 acres) | Odisha | |
| 10 | IIT Gandhinagar | IITGN | 2008 | 160 ha (400 acres) | Gujarat | |
| 11 | IIT Hyderabad | IITH | 2008 | 233 ha (576 acres) | Telangana | |
| 12 | IIT Jodhpur | IITJ | 2008 | 345 ha (852 acres) | Rajasthan | |
| 13 | IIT Patna | IITP | 2008 | 203 ha (501 acres) | Bihar | |
| 14 | IIT Indore | IITI | 2009 | 208 ha (515 acres) | Madhya Pradesh | |
| 15 | IIT Mandi | IITMandi | 2009 | 218 ha (538 acres) | Himachal Pradesh | |
| 16 | IIT (BHU) Varanasi | IIT (BHU) | 1919 | 530 ha (1,300 acres) | Uttar Pradesh | |
| 17 | IIT Palakkad | IITPKD | 2015[10] | 2015[10] | 204 ha (505 acres) | Kerala |
| 18 | IIT Tirupati | IITTP | 2015 | 221.81 ha (548.11 acres) | Andhra Pradesh | |
| 19 | IIT (ISM) Dhanbad | IIT (ISM) | 1926 | 280 ha (680 acres) | Jharkhand | |
| 20 | IIT Bhilai | IITBH | 2016[11] | 2016[11] | 175 ha (432 acres) | Chhattisgarh |
| 21 | IIT Goa | IITGOA | 2016[12] | 2016[12] | 130 ha (320 acres) | Goa |
| 22 | IIT Jammu | IITJM | 2016[13] | 2016[13] | 160 ha (400 acres) | Jammu and Kashmir |
| 23 | IIT Dharwad | IITDH | 2016[14] | 2016[14] | 190 ha (470 acres) | Karnataka |
History[edit]
The history of the IIT system dates back to 1946 when Sir Jogendra Singh of the Viceroy's Executive Council set up a committee whose task was to consider the creation of Higher Technical Institutions for post-war industrial development in India. The 22-member committee, headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, recommended the establishment of these institutions in various parts of India, along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with affiliated secondary institutions.[15]
The first Indian Institute of Technology was founded in May 1950 at the site of the Hijli Detention Camp in Kharagpur, West Bengal.[16] The name "Indian Institute of Technology" was adopted before the formal inauguration of the institute on 18 August 1951 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.[17] On 15 September 1956, the Parliament of India passed the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act, declaring it as an Institute of National Importance. Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India, in the first convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in 1956 said:[18]
| “ | Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands the fine monument of India, representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India. | ” |
On the recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, four campuses were established at Bombay (1958), Madras (1959), Kanpur (1959), and Delhi (1961). The location of these campuses was chosen to be scattered throughout India to prevent regional imbalance.[19] The Indian Institutes of Technology Act was amended to reflect the addition of new IITs.[2] Student agitations in the state of Assam made Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi promise the creation of a new IIT in Assam. This led to the establishment of a sixth institution at Guwahati under the Assam Accord in 1960. In 2001, the University of Roorkee, India's oldest engineering college, was converted into IIT Roorkee.
Over the past few years, there have been a number of developments toward establishing new IITs. On October 1, 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced plans to create more IITs "by upgrading existing academic institutions that have the necessary promise and potential".[20] Subsequent developments led to the formation of the S K Joshi Committee, in November 2003, to guide the selection of the five institutions which would be converted into IITs. Based on the initial recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, it was decided that new IITs should be spread throughout the country. When the government expressed its willingness to correct this regional imbalance, 16 states demanded IITs. Since the S K Joshi Committee prescribed strict guidelines for institutions aspiring to be IITs,[21] only seven colleges were selected for final consideration.[22] Plans are also reported to open IITs outside India, although there has not been much progress in this regard.[23] Eventually in the 11th Five year plan, eight states were identified for establishment of new IITs. In 2008 and 2009, eight new IITs were set up in Gandhinagar, Jodhpur, Hyderabad, Indore, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Ropar, and Mandi. Following same selection process since 1972, in 2012 the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University was made a member of the IITs.
In 2015 to 2016, six new IITs in Tirupati, Palakkad, Dharwad, Bhilai, Goa and Jammu, approved through a 2016 bill amendment, were founded, along with the conversion of ISM Dhanbad into IIT Dhanbad.
The entire allocation by the central government for 2017-18 budget for all Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) was slightly over ₹70 billion (US$980 million). However, the aggregate money spent by Indian students for tertiary education in the United States was about six times more than what the central government spends on all IITs.[24]
Organisational structure[edit]
The President of India is the most powerful person in the organisational structure of Indian Institutes of Technology, being the ex officio Visitor,[25] and having residual powers. Directly under the President is the IIT Council, which comprises the minister-in-charge of technical education in the Union Government, the Chairmen of all IITs, the Directors of all IITs, the Chairman of the University Grants Commission, the Director General of CSIR, the Chairman of IISc, the Director of IISc, three members of Parliament, the Joint Council Secretary of Ministry of Human Resource and Development, and three appointees each of the Union Government, AICTE, and the Visitor.[26]
Under the IIT Council is the Board of Governors of each IIT. Under the Board of Governors is the Director, who is the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT.[27] Under the Director, in the organisational structure, comes the Deputy Director. Under the Director and the Deputy Director, come the Deans, Heads of Departments, Registrar, President of the Students' Council, and Chairman of the Hall Management Committee. The Registrar is the chief administrative officer of the IIT and overviews the day-to-day operations.[27] Below the Heads of Department (HOD) are the faculty members (Professors, Associate Professors, and Assistant Professors). The Wardens come under the Chairman of the Hall Management Committee.[28]
The Institutes of Technology Act[edit]
The Institutes of Technology act was later taken as the base for the following years up until date. The Act primarily accepted few IITs as Institutes of National Importance and converted them from 'Societies' to University status.
Education[edit]
The IITs receive comparatively higher grants than other engineering colleges in India.[29] While the total government funding to most other engineering colleges is around ₹100–200 million ($2–4 million) per year, the amount varies between ₹900–1300 million ($19–27 million) per year for each IIT.[22] Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding from industry and contributions from the alumni. The faculty-to-student ratio in the IITs is between 1:6 and 1:8.[30] The Standing Committee of IIT Council (SCIC) prescribes the lower limit for faculty-to-student ratio as 1:9, applied department wise. The IITs subsidise undergraduate student fees by approximately 80% and provide scholarships to all Master of Technology students and Research Scholars in order to encourage students for higher studies, per the recommendations of the Thacker Committee (1959–1961).[31] The cost borne by undergraduate students is around ₹180,000 per year.[32] After students from SC and ST categories, physically challenged students will now[when?] be the beneficiaries of fee waiver at the IITs in India.[citation needed]
The various IITs function autonomously, and their special status as Institutes of National Importance facilitates the smooth running of IITs, virtually free from both regional as well as student politics. Such autonomy means that IITs can create their own curricula and adapt rapidly to the changes in educational requirements, free from bureaucratic hurdles. The government has no direct control over internal policy decisions of IITs (like faculty recruitment and curricula) but has representation on the IIT Council. The medium of instruction in all IITs is English.[33] The classes are usually held between 7:30 am and 5:30 pm, though there are some variations within each IIT. All the IITs have public libraries for the use of their students. In addition to a collection of prescribed books, the libraries have sections for fiction and other literary genres[citation needed]. The electronic libraries allow students to access on-line journals and periodicals. The IITs and IISc have taken an initiative along with Ministry of Human Resource Development to provide free online videos of actual lectures of different disciplines under National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning. This initiative is undertaken to make quality education accessible to all students.[34]
The academic policies of each IIT are decided by its Senate. This comprises all professors of the IIT and student representatives. Unlike many western universities that have an elected senate, the IITs have an academic senate. It controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations and results, and appoints committees to look into specific academic matters. The teaching, training and research activities of the institute are periodically reviewed by the senate to maintain educational standards.[35] The Director of an IIT is the ex-officio Chairman of the Senate.
All the IITs follow the credits system of performance evaluation, with proportional weighting of courses based on their importance. The total marks (usually out of 100) form the basis of grades, with a grade value (out of 10) assigned to a range of marks. Sometimes, relative grading is done considering the overall performance of the whole class. For each semester, the students are graded on a scale of 0 to 10 based on their performance, by taking a weighted average of the grade points from all the courses, with their respective credit points. Each semester evaluation is done independently and then the weighted average over all semesters is used to calculate the cumulative grade point average (known as CGPA or CPI—Cumulative Performance Index).
Undergraduate education[edit]
The Bachelor of Technology (BTech) degree is the most common undergraduate degree in the IITs in terms of student enrolment,[citation needed] although dual degrees integrating Master of Science or Master of Arts are also offered. The BTech course is based on a 4-year program with eight semesters,[36] while the Dual Degree and Integrated courses are 5-year programs with ten semesters. In all IITs, the first year of BTech and Dual Degree courses are marked by a common course structure for all the students, though in some IITs, a single department introduction related course is also included.[37] The common courses include the basics from most of the departments like Electronics, Mechanics, Chemistry, Electrical and Physics. At the end of first year (the end of first semester at IIT Madras, IIT Hyderabad and IIT Roorkee), an option to change departments is given to meritorious students on the basis of their performance in the first two semesters.[38] Few such changes ultimately take place as the criteria for them are usually strict,[38] limited to the most meritorious students.
From the second year onward, the students study subjects exclusively from their respective departments.[39] In addition to these, the students have to take compulsory advanced courses from other departments in order to broaden their education. Separate compulsory courses from humanities and social sciences department, and sometimes management courses are also enforced.[40] In the last year of their studies, most of the students are placed into industries and organisations via the placement process of the respective IIT, though some students opt out of this either when going for higher studies or when they take up jobs by applying to the companies directly.[41]
Postgraduate and doctoral education[edit]
Master's degrees and postgraduate diplomas[edit]
The IITs offer a number of postgraduate programs including Master of Technology (MTech), Master of Business Administration (MBA) (only for engineers and post graduates in science), and Master of Science (MSc). Some IITs offer specialised graduate programmes such as Master of Design (M.Des.), the Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology (PGDIT), Master in Medical Science and Technology (MMST), Master of City Planning (MCP), Master of Arts (MA), Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law (PGDIPL), and the Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation & Management (PGDMOM).
Some of the IITs offer an M.S. (by research) program; the MTech and M.S. are similar to the US universities' non-thesis (course based) and thesis (research based) masters programs respectively. Admissions to masters programs in engineering are made using scores of the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), while those to masters programs in science are made using scores of the Joint Admission Test to MSc (JAM).
Several IITs have schools of management offering master's degrees in management or business administration.
Bachelors-Masters dual degrees[edit]
The IITs also offer an unconventional BTech and MTech integrated educational program called "Dual Degree". It integrates undergraduate and postgraduate studies in selected areas of specialisation. It is completed in five years[42] as against six years in conventional BTech (four years) followed by an MTech (two years).[43] Integrated Master of Science programs are also offered at few IITs which integrates the Undergraduate and Postgraduate studies in Science streams in a single degree program against the conventional University system. These programs were started to allow its graduates to complete postgraduate studies from IIT rather than having to go to another institute.
Doctoral degrees[edit]
The IITs also offer the Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) as part of their doctoral education programme. In it, the candidates are given a topic of academic interest by the professor or have to work on a consultancy project given by the industries. The duration of the program is usually unspecified and depends on the specific discipline. PhD candidates have to submit a dissertation as well as provide an oral defence for their thesis. Teaching Assistantships (TA) and Research Assistantships (RA) are often provided.
The IITs, along with NITs and IISc, account for nearly 80% of all engineering PhDs in India.[44] IITs now allow admission in PhD programs without the mandatory GATE score.[45][46]
Culture and student life[edit]
All the IITs provide on-campus residential facilities to the students, research scholars and faculty. The students live in hostels (sometimes referred to as halls) throughout their stay in the IIT. Students in all IITs must choose among National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) and National Sports Organisation (NSO) in their first years.[47] All the IITs have sports grounds for basketball, cricket, football (soccer), hockey, volleyball, lawn tennis, badminton, and athletics; and swimming pools for aquatic events. Usually the hostels also have their own sports grounds. Moreover, an Inter IIT Sports Meet is organised annually where participants from all 23 IITs contest for the General Championship Trophy in 13 different sports.[48]
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