IIT's Offering New Training Program For Faculties

The government has come across a decision to offer an online part time Master's degree in Engineering Education conducted by Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT's). The course has been designed for engineering college faculty members and will be conducted online through live video lectures to ensure that faculty members need not quit their regular teaching duties.

This decision has been taken to train thousands of untrained faculty members of different engineering colleges across India as shortage of faculty members in these colleges have compelled them to recruit fresh engineering graduates as faculty. But these graduates are not trained enough and lack teaching skills to encourage students towards research. As a result, poor quality engineers are produced.

The ministry aim s to train 6 to 7 thousand engineering faculty members each year through this project. But training such a large number of participants will require 1500 skilled faculties of IIT's and other institutes. The courses are said to be held in the evening and during weekends.

The main aim of this program is to train nearly 30,000 faculty members in next five years, starting from April 2012. The demand of faculty members in engineering colleges is expected to go up by 70% by 2020 and the number of candidates pursuing technical education programs in India has increased to more than 2 million from less than 1 million in 2007-08.

In order to fulfill this demand, the government is planning to introduce a new 3 year dual Masters Degree Programme – an M.Tech and a Masters degree in educational skills and Pedagogy. This course will encourage the post graduates from IIT's to opt for teaching in Engineering colleges. In order to ensure employability for the future students, the government wants the industry to run a pilot project to train engineering faculties in colleges.