- IIT -Kanpur
- IIT - Delhi
- IIT - Chennai (Madras)
- IIT - Kharagpur
- IIT - Mumbai
- IIT - Roorkhee
- IIT -Guwahati
- National Institute of Technology, Suratthkal
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have excelled as the centres of technical learning for decades and this year too, they occupy seven slots in the list of Top 10 engineering colleges in the country. This year, IIT-Kanpur gained two positions to be on the top, nudging last year's leader IIT-Delhi into the second slot.
True to its motto of "lead me from darkness to light", IIT-Kanpur has become synonymous with the word excellence in technical education. It started in a room in the Canteen Building of the Harcourt Butler Technological Institute at Agricultural Gardens in Kanpur with just 100 students, but today, in its golden jubilee year, it has 4,500 students with the student-teacher ratio being 10:1.
In affirmation of its commitment to excellence are its mechanical and nuclear engineering and technology departments which were instrumental in designing Jugnu, a 3.5-kg nanosatellite, which was handed over to the ISRO in March this year. Director Sanjay G. Dhande calls these successes a result of the institute's passion to excel in the field of teaching, research and innovation.
"While maintaining our excellent undergraduate programmes, we want to scale new heights in our research and postgraduate programmes. We are very keen to use technical developments for the benefit of society."
The undergraduate courses offered here have the reputation of being the toughest in the country. Professor Nalinaksh S. Vyas, head, department of mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering and technology programme, IIT-Kanpur, however, believes that undergraduate education in the country is predominantly faculty dependent and to overcome faculty shortage, it should be made branchless.
Compulsory course content should involve fundamental and generic courses from all basic streams and the student should be allowed to choose his/her area of specialisation in specific areas but only at the postgraduate level.
The quality of research here is exemplary. They have undertaken many ambitious projects, amongst them the Himalayan task of cleaning up the 2,510-km Ganges under The National Ganga River Basin Management Plan project. With as many as six other IITs, including Delhi and Chennai, joining hands with IIT-Kanpur, many believe this ambitious plan is no longer impossible.
The IITs in Chennai, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee and Guwahati are others in the Top 10 list with IIT-Kharagpur slipping two positions, from second to fourth. The only new entrant this year in the Top 10 is the National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, which has moved up from 11th to 10th position while the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, has slipped from eighth to 11th position.
After being on the top for two consecutive years, IIT-Delhi lost its numero uno position to IIT-Kanpur. Surendra Prasad, director, IIT-Delhi, believes that "IITs have remained good centres of technical learning because they have autonomy, best facilities and good funding for quality research work".
About the faculty at IIT-Delhi, Prasad says the average age of 100 new faculty members is 32 years and most of them have been exposed to the best practices in the best educational institutes in the world. "The course contents are reviewed every year so as to adapt them to the current state of knowledge. Even the student's input is given due consideration," Prasad says. At IIT-Delhi, the emphasis is on research work with about Rs 100 crore earmarked for it every year.
The third slot in the Top 10 is occupied by IIT-Madras. Spread over a 250-hectare campus, canopied by lush green forest, it has a vision clear for itself: an academic institution in equilibrium with its social, ecological and economic environment striving continuously for excellence in education, research and technology.
This vision is exemplified by its Centre for Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC and SR) that promotes interaction between the industry and institute.
The institute has established itself as a premier centre for teaching, research and industrial consultancy in the country and currently has around 4,500 students, 460 teachers and 1,250 technical staff on its roll. To keep up with the best and the latest in the world of science and technology, the focus is on research and consultancy projects.
M.S. Ananth, director, IIT-Madras, says, "At times, our students fail to meet the expectations of the recruiting companies. We are working towards bridging this gap. IIT-Madras is very particular that its syllabus should cater to the needs of the companies and produce engineering graduates who match their expectations."
A special placement cell at the campus ensures 100 per cent placement for hundreds of its engineering and MBA graduates, who are hired by some of the best like Tower Research Capital, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs at an attractive compensation package.
Seventy per cent of our students who had registered for placements were hired by the best in the industry last year and this year too, 200 companies visited the campus," says Jayakumar, deputy registrar of training and placement at IIT-Madras.
Now there are seven iits instead of original four that lead to the obvious apprehension: will growing numbers mean dilution in the quality of teaching? Prasad dispels such fears: "If the evolution process is good, there would be no dilution." IITs still remain potent instruments to change the world through scientific approach.
with Farzand Ahmed and Lakshmi Subramanian
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