The Planning Commission has made efforts to set up new IIT’s and  IIM’s in India. Some of the new institutions has already started its functions in India along  side the old ones.  This proposal has been put forward by the government of India with the expectation that by increasing the number of IIT’s and IIM’s will help to bring up larger quantity of executives and techie’s. This initiation was also made with an intention to increase the scope of R & D in India. With these positive effects being projected there are also many downsides regarding the expansion of these institutions.  

IIMs & IITs

One of the main concerns regarding the addition of more IIT’s and IIM’s are simply the filtering of the premium quality possessed by most of these institutions. Will mere increase in the number of institution promise the quality of education passed on to the students or will this result in just low quality and weaken the good will of the IIT’s and IIM’s. Can adding more IIT’s and IIM’s turn them in to average institutions which whip out only dozens of mediocre level professionals?

In the past years the IIM’s were just known as A, B and C according to the location it was situated. Later on it was further expanded to Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore. As years passed and the popularity of the IIM’s grew it was further expanded to more location which included Shillong, Ranchi, Raipur and Rohtak. A new IIM is also expected to start in Trichy and plans are there to start IIM’s at Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.

The IITs were initially established in Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur and Delhi. These were the older IITs in India. Later it was expanded to Guwahati and Roorkee. In the year 2008 further expanction of IITs were made to Ropar, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Gandhinagar, Patna and Rajasthan. The most novel IITs in India was established in the year 2009 at Mandi and Indore.

What do so many IIMs and IIT’s mean?

India needs more quality educational institution and this is a fact. As the IIMs and IITs claim to be the toughest institution to get admission is more due to the scarcity of seats available rather than intellectual rigor. There for as to endow more deserving students a chance of quality education, more number of institutions under the brand name is a good option. Even though the IITs and IIMs are funded very poorly when compared to the global standards, these institutions are far better than their Indian counterpart. The brand name of these institutions itself is good enough and provides the up and coming institutions the attention and care they dreadfully needs.

IIM Kolkata - The first IIM in India

The education system has huge belief in the brand names of IIT’s and IIM’s and trust that expansion will not weaken, in fact strengthen the institutions. By means of more addition of students and alumni would only mean better reach, power and impact.

Do we need them?

IITs and IIMs are known all over the world and both these institution has already made their marks in terms of technology and also management. These institutions are known for selecting the best candidates from the countries talent pool.

As  more IITs and IIMs are coming up, the question which is on a constant debate is, whether India needs them or not?  On a personnel note, having more reputed institution which is capable of imparting quality education is an unavoidable necessity in a country like India.

Few benefits of adding mere institutions will be intake of more students, brand expansion etc. At present the quality of students taken into the IIMs and IITs are very few. When taken under consideration the intake is actually minuscule. Every year there are lakhs of students desire to get admission in to the IITs and IIMs. There are only few thousands of seats available and in some case deserving candidates will not get a chance to enter into these centers of excellence. There for the system undoubtedly needs to spread out considering the intake of students.

Another question regarding the expansion is with the whole concept of the cream students being selected as the ration is very low. When the number of IITs and IIMs are enlarged, it should not affect the quality.  The brand is also another area which needs to be given required consideration while expanding these institutions, so that the students from all the IITs and IIMs get equal benefit. The IITs and IIMs, even though in separate locations they have always been together under one umbrella brand. With the sudden jump in the IITs and IIMs numbers must not get any disadvantage. If a student is applying for a Masters degree in any of the foreign university after IIT or IIM should get discriminated from the existing institutions and the recently started institutions.

Planning and Execution of the new and upcoming institution is another important factor which has been elapsed. Even though the new IITs and IIMs were conceptualized and have started its functions by Government on paper, the issue was that, the new IITs and IIMs campuses were not built and the classes for the initial batch were held at temporary locations. For example the IIT Punjab classes were carried out at the IIT Delhi campus. Students cannot be expected to study in such circumstances. The Government must move in a properly planned direction and first implant the infrastructure, faculty and needed resources first.

First academic building of IIT Kharagpur

Methods that can accelerate the quality at new colleges

In the course of increased intake the institutions aim must be to expand the bandwidth of qualified professors. The ratio between the professors and the students is very crucial. Technological intervention is another way to facilitate better educational support and resources. The masters and fellowship programs in the IITs and IIMs must also be strengthened in the new institutions.

By implanting Buddy systems, Peer learning and mentoring by seniors will definitely help the students of the resent IITs and IIMs catch up more swiftly. These institutions can also offer online dais to make possible such swap over of information smoothly. Student exchange programs can furthermore be included to facilitate co-operation among the ole and new institutions.

The existing IIT and IIM mentors can help a hand to the new members with the placements. Some put forth only for the riches while some put forth to aid each other out. Consequently, if alumni and students of the old IITs and IIMs extend help to their newer additions, these institutions can be certainly considered as one of the pioneers in the education sector and make themselves more prouder.