Chennai: The governing board of IIT Madras has approved the proposal of recruiting 100 foreign faculty members to the top engineering institute in next three years.
Announcing it to reporters here on Wednesday, Pawan Goenka, chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Madras said, “We are trying to recruit at least 25 foreign faculty members each year. Even if we get 50 or 60 foreigners it would be a good number.”
Currently, IIT Madras is having over 600 faculty members for 9,200 students in the campus. “The faculty-student ratio is 1:15 and the government prescribed ratio is 1:10. We are trying to increase the faculty strength without compromising on the quality,” he said.
Explaining the rationale behind recruiting foreign faculties, IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said, “They will bring diversity to our research and teaching faculty as they come from different cultures. It will provide valuable experience for our students.”
Foreign students and teaching faculty are one of the important parameters in world university rankings. When asked whether IIT Madras can retain its number one position this year in the national rankings Pawan Goenka said, “There is not much difference between the old IITs in the country. IIT Madras has got its own advantages and disadvantages.”
The institute is also planning to undertake a study on why only 10 of the top 100 rank holders in JEE are joining IIT Madras. The study will also look at the enabling and disabling factors for the faculty members for joining IIT Madras and why some companies do not come to IIT-M for recruiting. The central government has allocated Rs 750 crore for the premier engineering institute in the country as against Rs 450 crore last year.“Due to the advancement of the budget this year, the IIT Madras will get the first phase of funding as soon as in April,” Pawan Goenka said.
“IIT Madras is receiving 75 per cent of its funds for research from the government and 25 per cent from the industry. We have to reverse it and it should receive 75 per cent funds from the industry.”
