An acute shortage of technical manpower in the prestigious IITs — including Delhi, Kanpur, Mumbai, Kharagpur and Chennai — has rung the alarm bells for the authorities as the students may not be ‘industry-ready’.
The institutes have already been facing an academic staff shortage. But with growing engagement with research and new equipment that requires different technical skill sets, a lack of technical manpower too has emerged as a reason to worry.
“This is hampering the technical academic quality and we may not train them to be industry ready,” said an IIT source.
“In view of the expansion of institutes, there is an increasing need for capable technical staff at senior levels in supervisory and management functions. In the absence of adequate support staff, the faculty members get burdened with extra administrative load, which diverts attention from teaching and research. Moreover, the Institutes are engaging in newer activities with international universities and interfacing with industry and alumni. To enable faculty to achieve their potential, an appropriate administrative and technical support is essential,” said a HRD Ministry official.
The issue is likely to be taken in the Council of IIT meeting early next week. An IIT official said that the crisis is due to the result of clubbing the technical non-faculty and the non-technical non-faculty together under the category of non-faculty.
“A high number of non-faculty staff, due to legacy, has further reduced the space for hiring trained Technical Staff. There is a need to consider granting greater flexibility in the recruitment of staff, particularly at senior levels,” said the official.
A HRD Ministry official said that the aim of the proposal for creating a technical cadre is to free the faculty from laboratory, workshops responsibilities to enable them to devote their time to teaching and research. “As in the case of faculty, overall ratios may be fixed with flexibility as to recruit staff with the required skills, when specific new functions arise,” he mentioned. The agenda for the Council of IIT meeting on September 3 has recommended for technical staff needs to be strengthened and a technical cadre can be considered.