The Hindu Business Line : IITs need more autonomy

The IIT faculty is on a hunger strike! This is not something in Ripley’s Believe it or Not but a challenge facing the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) today. It is not an ordinary wage dispute but part of a deeper malaise which afflicts the higher education system in India.

The MHRD is fixing the new pay structure for the faculty, determining the percentage of promotions, incentive programmes, and micro-managing the whole issue. Its view is that since public money is involved, there must be accountability and, therefore, the need to exercise control over the pay structure.

The faculty is incensed at the low pay, wants a pay structure comparable with that of scientists, harks upon the lack of respect being shown to them and the loss of flexibility in their career structure that they enjoy today. The hunger strike is a show of the lack of confidence in the MHRD.

Lack of autonomy

The basic issue is the lack of autonomy for the IIT boards of management to decide the pay and career structure for the faculty. Oxford and Cambridge in the UK and the University system in California are funded by the Government to a great extent. But the government does not fix the pay structure for the faculty and the terms of employment are governed by the independent boards.

These universities are held accountable for the outcome and have been successful. Of course, they have a long history and tradition and enjoy a great degree of autonomy. Our IITs/IIMs, however, are for administrative purposes treated as part of the government and their faculty akin to government servants, not keeping in view the need for autonomy.

It is often lamented that India has not produced any Nobel Laureate for long; we do not produce enough research and not enough PhDs. Our existing model, evolved over the past 50 years, has failed to deliver excellence and India has actually moved backwards in its global impact.

In his book ‘A Better India: A Better World’, Mr N. R. Narayana Murthy says that “The absence of research excellence has seriously impacted India’s scientific and technological output. India ranks a lowly 119th among 149 countries in the citations index. A McKinsey study found that the typical IIT was granted three to six patents in a year as against 64 for Stanford Engineering faculty and 102 for MIT Engineering faculty. India’s pool of PhDs is less than one-tenth the size of the US pool.”

Mr Murthy also goes on to share various examples to demonstrate how over the last 30 years things have deteriorated, that India only has two universities in the top 500 in the world; the stifling bureaucracy and excessive control over institutes of higher education have impeded their progress. In the mid-sixties, IIT Kanpur was able to attract 350 PhDs from abroad, while it fails to attract even a handful today.

Govt-PSU model

How can this be resolved? The Government of India (GoI) already has a model at work with its PSU’s. The Government signs an MoU with each PSU every year, where the latter commits to a level of performance to the former as the owner, and the PSU is given limited powers.

The MHRD can try the same approach; sign an MoU with each IIT, under which the Government can promise to fund a certain amount in return for a certain outcome from the IITs. This will create an arms length between the two and enable the board of management to exercise the powers of governance and make the IIT more accountable.

The MHRD can also ensure that societal issues are dealt with in the same manner, since education obviously is a catalyst for social transformation and society casts a responsibility on the Government.

Focus on excellence

Since the faculty will have to deal with their own director and board, there will be greater focus on excellence and, perhaps, differential salaries between the IITs. There will be less constraint in hiring new faculty and offering superior pay scales. The IITs too should be enabled to raise their own resources so that they get financial independence over a period of time. Obviously, with such a varied and rich alumni, this should not be difficult!

The MHRD has more important things to do for India — only 12.4 per cent of youngsters in the age group of 18-24 are in college after 60 years of freedom; only 67 per cent of people are literate; more than 50 per cent of children drop out of school by the time they reach standard X. The greatest human tragedy in this planet is being played out in India and MHRD is spending its energies on controlling the IITs!

(Mohandas Pai is Member of the Board and Somnath Baishya is Head - Talent Planning, Infosys Technologies Ltd. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

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