New Delhi, July 24: An IIT advisory panel has suggested special enhanced scholarships for the top 10 per cent of those doing PhD to encourage the best students to take up research and forego corporate jobs.
The Standing Committee of the IIT Council (SCIC), comprising the directors of a few institutes, met in Delhi today and also suggested changes in the process of appointing the directors at the tech schools.
The 16 IITs offer 3,000 PhD seats to BTech and MTech students. BTech students who qualify the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering are eligible, as are those with MSc who clear the National Eligibility Test.
The IITs give scholarships to 90 per cent of the PhD students. They get Rs 16,000 each month for the first two years and Rs 18,000 for the rest of the course. The SCIC suggested that the top 10 per cent students be given Rs 28,000.
“The idea is to encourage the best students to pursue research. After BTech, most students prefer corporate jobs,” IIT Guwahati director Gautam Barua said.
A committee of experts under former Atomic Energy Commission chief Anil Kakodkar had found that only 1 per cent of BTech graduates from IITs pursued PhD.
IIT Delhi director R.K. Shevgaonkar said the higher scholarship had to be approved by the IIT Council, the institutes’ apex decision-making body.
He said the SCIC had not specified how to select the top 10 per cent students. “Each IIT will discuss how to identify students for the special scholarship.”
On the changes in the appointment process of IIT directors, it was felt the current system had some anomalies. A search committee headed by the HRD minister and comprising chairpersons of the UGC and AICTE and two other experts interviews shortlisted candidates and selects one. The name is sent to the President, the Visitor, for approval.
“The UGC and AICTE chairpersons enjoy the same rank as IIT directors. It doesn’t look nice that they interview and select IIT directors,” an official said.
It has been suggested that two names be recommended for the search panel by the SCIC, whose chairperson should also be part of the committee.
