Older IITs Decline Govt.’s Proposal to Increase Student Intake

Owing to the existing crunch of resources, the seven old Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have refused to accept the proposal made by Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry to increase seats in its flagship Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) course. 

As per the proposal, the HRD ministry suggested IITs to increase their annual student intake capacity from 72000 to 1 lakh by 2020. This implies that the institutes strive to add 4000 B.Tech and 6000 M.Tech & PhD seats over the next three years.

The proposal had received a green signal from the decision-making IIT Council who held discussions on August 23 on possibilities of increasing the seats. The IITs were in-turn asked to evaluate their resources and draft a roadmap to achieve the overall seat increase.

The seven old IITs refused the proposal, as they would have to do away with the policy that makes it mandatory for students to stay on campus. Admitting new residential students would require building of more hostels, which is not practically difficult for these institutes. The council had also asked the institutes to admit more of non-residential students, to meet the demand for more hostel accommodations. 

The director of one of the seven old IITs stated that it is impossible to admit more students who are non-residential as institutes like IIT Guwahati and IIT Kharagpur are located in far-flung areas with lesser options for rented accommodations. The students also have to, sometimes, stay back in the laboratories, which is difficult for non-residential students.

Out of the 23 IITs in the country, the seven old IITs include IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati, IIT Roorkee, IIT Kanpur and IIT Kharagpur. Only five IITs have agreed to implement proposal as of now.

The newer IITs who have agreed to increase their student capacity from 2022 batch include IIT Hyderbad, IIT Patna, IIT Mandi, IIT Patna and IIT Jammu. As per reports, IIT Ropar will add 105 seats, IIT Mandi will add 50, IIT Hyderabad will 40, IIT Jammu will add 30 while IIT Patna will add 25 seats in total.

The older IITs are keen on increasing M.Tech and PhD seats. Another director of one of the seven old IITs said, “The older IITs have reached a saturation point for admitting B.Tech student and the onus now lies on the newer institutes.