Global Faculty Recruitment Drive to Up IIT Rankings

In a move to steer IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) up in global standards, the group of institutions have decided to conduct an international recruitment drive, this time for faculty. The drive is scheduled for January next year and is expected to improve the ranking of IITs in the world level.

It aims at untapping international talent on Indian grounds and train the students to become global citizens.

While announcing the initiative IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao said, "To ensure that the global ranking of IITs improves, it is important not only to have international students but also international faculty. We are planning to conduct faculty recruitment drives in foreign countries and will begin with the US in January."

"Earlier also we used to conduct a similar exercise but that was limited to candidates with Indian-origin. Here we will look only for global talent. We will also encourage the faculty members to start their own companies while teaching here to lead students in establishing their start ups," he said.

"We plan to increase the intake of PhD students from current 2500 to around 5000 in next three years. The idea is to do it in phases so the quality of research doesn't suffer," Rao added. Also, an Alumni Development Cell is scheduled to be set up to connect with the passed out students and gain their constant support for IITs.

The institute recently held its 47th convocation day on November 6 when Bharat Ratna awardee scientist CN Rao gave away degrees to 1964 students, the highest number in past ten years.