The increasing demand for IIT seats and higher intake is proving to be an impediment in achieving the ideal student-faculty ratio of 10:1 among the older and more established IITs. This is revealed by data shared by the Ministry of Education in the Lok Sabha.

Newer IITs such as IIT Jammu, IIT Bhilai, IIT Tirupati however have good student-faculty ratio at 12:1. This is due to the lower number of students in these institutions. IIT BHU, on the other hand, has the least favourable ratio of 23:1, due to the larger student population at the institution.

Among the country’s best IITs (according to the latest National Institutional Ranking Framework ranks), IIT Kharagpur and IIT Dhanbad have a high ratio at 21:1. At the same time, IIT Indore has a 14:1 ratio, followed by IIT Delhi and IIT Hyderabad with ratios of 15:1.

Other older IITs such as IIT Madras, IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur too have high ratios between 18:1 And 19:1. The Ministry response also reveals that vacant faculty positions in all IITs is high, with IIT Kharagpur topping the list with 815 vacancies.

The timeline of the issue

India has been discussing the issue of faculty shortage and unfavourable student-faculty ratios in IITs for a while now. In 2007, the retirement age for IIT teachers was raised from 60 to 65 by the then UPA government, to maintain a 10:1 ratio. Again, in 2010, the HRD Ministry (Now Ministry of Education) had decided to allow an extension of up to five years to faculty members who have crossed the age of 65.

In 2016, a proposal was accepted by the then HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to count five research scholars as one faculty member, to address the issue, according to news reports. However, it is unclear if that is implemented yet.

In 2021 August, the then Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare had written to all IITs, asking them to fill up all vacant faculty positions in ‘mission mode’ by September 2022.

The government’s current stand isn’t quite different from that of Khare’s from last year. Answering Tharoor’s question, the Minister of State for Education, Subhas Sarkar said, “The Ministry of Education has requested all IITs to fill up the vacancies in faculty cadre through Special Recruitment Drive in Mission Mode.

What are the IITs saying?

Dr RV Rajakumar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar, was of the opinion that given the demand for seats in IITs, achieving a 10:1 ratio could take time. “When the growth is continued in the presence of vacancies, the gap between the rising demand and the faculty strength will continue for long, even after continued recruitments and rising faculty strength. It is not right to stop the growth to reduce vacancies to zero for achieving the desired ratio,” he said. IIT BBS currently has a 22:1 ratio and 115 vacancies.

However, Dr Sunil Kumar, Director, IIT Palakkad thinks the institution that he is heading can achieve the target ratio by June 2022. IIT Palakkad currently has a 13:1 ratio student faculty ratio and 2 vacancies. “We do not have many vacant faculty positions. Efforts are made to fill the remaining vacancies through regular faculty recruitment, at least twice in a year,” he said.

Dr Satyanarayana, Director, IIT Tirupati too said that IIT Tirupati will fill up its vacant positions in the next recruitment drive, in June. The institute, according to the ministry data, only has 18 vacant faculty positions.

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