New Delhi: Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are currently facing a huge faculty crunch and are looking for well-qualified teachers. As a solution to the problem, IITs have come up with a proposal of hiring foreign nationals as permanent faculty members. The institutes are seeking the approval of the government for the same. In 2007, the IITs had been granted the permission to hire foreign nationals as faculty members, but only for a maximum period of 5 years, on contract basis.
As per sources, a meeting between IIT Council and the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal is scheduled to be held on September 10, 2010. The agenda of the meeting is to chalk out the benefits and losses of the proposal by the IITs. If the proposal is accepted by the government, it would be of immense benefit to the students, as it would provide them with exposure to globally distinguished professors in an extraordinary manner.
Most critics have argued that if foreign nationals are allowed to remain as permanent faculty members at IITs, they would have to be paid higher than their Indian counterparts. This point has been disproved by the IITs in their proposal to the government, saying that they would be able to hire foreign teachers without having to pay them more than Indian faculty members.
