TRAINING AND EDUCATION: An Illusion of Knowledge Capital

The potential scarcity of knowledge workers in the country is an issue that

has received much attention both in the media and amongst decision-makers. But a

bigger problem that looms larger immediately is the scarcity of quality faculty.

According to a study done by McKinsey & Co for the Task Force on HRD in

IT, it is estimated that the shortfall could be in the range of 4,500 faculty

members. By 2005, we could potentially have a shortfall of 500,000

professionals. "What’s more, these are conservative figures and do not

take into account the shortfall that can arise due to attrition or

migration," says Vipul Tuli, principal, McKinsey & Co. Today, the

country produces approximately 55,000 engineers annually (excluding MCAs and

graduates from private institutes).

To that extent we would require a faculty workforce of 9,000, the

availability of which is expected to be 4,500 and the expected shortfall would

be 4,500. The expected availability is based on the number of people who

register for post-graduate and PhD programs.

The crux of the problem

According to McKinsey, in a typical IIT, 30% of the faculty representing the

senior-most faculty members would be retiring in the next five years. A more

worrying trend is that faculty members below the age of 35 would not be more

than 15 in a typical IIT scenario–an indication that there are less and less

youngsters opting for teaching. If we were to put the faculty members in a

typical IIT in an age pyramid, it would look like this: Below 35 years: 15;

between 35-45 years: 105; between 45-55 years: 135; and above 55 years: 115.

The age pyramid may not give us an entirely accurate picture if we analyze

the issue from another perspective. Most IITs were established between 1955-65

during which the bulk of the faculty was taken and therefore most of the

teachers are in the higher age bracket. Nonetheless, it is a fact that monetary

gains in the industry are so substantial that it is not difficult to comprehend

why academics is a poor choice amongst youngsters today. Consider the difference

in the salary package between what a 22-year old graduate takes home and a

50-year-old professor.

While a fresh graduate from IIT could earn anywhere between Rs 5-6 lakh per

annum in the industry a professor at IIT would earn around Rs 3 lakh per annum

after years of service. Add to it the change in socio-cultural values wherein

academics no longer occupy the place of pride among the choice in careers.

As a result, over the past decade the quality of students who opt for higher

studies has seen a sharp decline–a fact corroborated by Dr RS Sirohi,

director, IIT Delhi. "Unfortunately, the quality of students who register

for post graduate courses is not of high standard, which in the long run can

have an adverse impact on the quality of students that we produce."

This is beginning to reflect in the quality of work that is undertaken at the

institutes. According to the McKinsey study during the period 1993-98, while a

typical IIT faculty was cited only 2-3 times in international journals, an MIT

engineering faculty was quoted 45 times and a Stanford University faculty member

was cited 52 times during the period. Or for that matter, a typical IIT has only

3-6 patents to its credit while MIT has 102 patents and Standford has 64 patents

to its credit. Defends Dr Sirohi, "It is not that our faculty here are not

doing quality work. But there is definitely a lack of awareness about patents

amongst faculty. However, we now hold educative sessions about patents so there

should be an improvement."

 The under-performance can be directly attributed to the amount of fund

available to institutes. Comparing the purchasing power parity (PPP) of

institutes in India with universities abroad, IITs in India have Rs 80 crore

annually as against Rs 400 crore for Stanford University and the University of

Berkley, California, and Rs 200 crore for Seoul University. Further the research

grant available (on the PPP) to a faculty here is Rs 15 lakh per year as against

Rs 110 lakh to an academician in MIT and Rs 100 lakh to a academician in

Stanford University.

The remedies

No doubt much needs to be done on a war footing to make academics an

attractive proposition. McKinsey says the component of government funding should

be increased to Rs 120 crore, double the existing Rs 60 crore.

Other sources of funds comprising private funding, government-sponsored

research, which currently account for about Rs 20-30 crore should be increased

to Rs 280 crore. In the US, a major source of funding for the universities is

government-sponsored research. The government has an allocation of Rs 15,000

crore annually for research projects. But most of the projects are dispersed

among government-owned organizations like DRDO, Center for BioTechnology

Research and the like. "Even if 5% of that allocation goes to IITs, it

works out Rs 750 crore divided among the six IITs at Rs 125 crore per year. And

the rest can be sourced from private funds," says Tuli.

Second, it is imperative to establish closer cooperation between the academic

world and the industry.

Another requirement is that institutes need to be given a lot more autonomy

in the day to day functioning with much less paper-work. A lot of

entrepreneurial spirit is nipped in the bud due to the immense paper-work

involved. There are only stray cases where faculty members venture to take their

invention into the world like Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Chennai or the

recent moves at IISc, Bangalore by a section of members to establish a venture

in biotechnology.

The future

Among the recommendations of the Task Force pending before the government

include increasing the student-teacher ratio from 1: 25 to 1: 30 in the IITs and

RECs. Although the AICTE recommendations suggest that the ratio be maintained at

1: 15, reality is the ratio stands at an average of 1:45. The Task Force also

has also suggested allowing ‘Adjunct Faculty’ which means people from the

industry can double up as part-time faculty members.

Addressing the issue of increasing the output of students, the Task Force has

recommended that the intake of students in RECs, IITs and other engineering

colleges should double in the next year and triple in the next two years. But

this may not be possible considering that the existing infrastructure may not

support the increase in the number of students. The other alternative is to

increase the number of colleges and institutes. Nasscom’s suggestion for

increasing the availability of knowledge workers is to set up of IIITs and RECs

in every state. This again is fraught with danger as we come full circle like

the egg and chicken story!

Balaka Baruah Aggarwal



Cyber News Service, New Delhi