Students of IIT Guwahati at their convocation on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, May 26: IIT Guwahati has repeated its successful run in the recently- concluded academic year, even though it faced severe constraints while recruiting faculty members for different departments.

Addressing the eighth convocation at the indoor stadium of the institute, IIT Guwahati director Gautam Barua asserted in his report that the biggest challenge was in obtaining sufficient numbers of quality faculty.

?Twenty new faculty members joined this institute last year. However, nine of them left, leaving us with a minor increase of 11 members,? Barua lamented. The current faculty strength of IIT Guwahati is 165, while last year the figure was 154.

He said the non-faculty strength has stagnated at 253: it was 250 at the end of March 2005.

Nevertheless, IIT Guwahati fared pretty well during the 2005-06 academic session, logging 100 per cent placement. The highest pay package offered to an M Tech student was Rs 8.8 lakh per annum, with an average package of Rs 3.8 lakh per annum.

Along with G. Anoop of the department of computer science and engineering, a topper of the IIM entrance examination, a total of 376 students were awarded B Tech, B Design, MSc and PhD degrees at the eighth convocation of IIT Guwahati today.

The premier scientific institute of the region also awarded degrees to students of the departments of chemical engineering and biotechnology for the first time today.

Delivering the convocation address, chairman of the board of governors of IIT Delhi and Padma Vibhushan awardee M.G.K. Menon said the IIT system has been unable to take advantage of the great opportunities for experimental research in science.

An MoU has been signed between IIT Guwahati and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology of Japan for research in these fields.