“The FIDP proposal has been accepted in principle by the IIT council. Specific details and ways of implementation are being worked out. It will include several schemes, some of which were already discussed at the council meeting,” said an IIT director.
A centralised database of former IIT students (doctoral or post-doctoral) abroad will be part of the FIDP. “Representatives from the IITs can then go abroad and network with outstanding candidates for recruitment,” said the academician.
IIT Bombay director Devang Khakhar said the future of the IITs will depend on attracting outstanding people as faculty and schemes like the FIDP will be helpful towards achieving this. “With IITs’ expansion, it has been estimated that the institutes will require 1,500-3,000 faculty over the next few years. We have almost 50,000 former students abroad. If there’s a combined effort, it will help IITs identify and attract quality people for faculty positions,” he said.
Khakhar said that the modalities of the various schemes will be discussed and chalked out. Adjunct faculty positions for eminent scientists or bright engineers from the industry have also been proposed. It was suggested that there should be fast-track procedures in place for faculty recruitment once the candidatures have been okayed.
“If there’s potential in MTech students, we can send them for higher studies on the condition that they will return and join as faculty,” said director of another IIT.