MHRD constituted the committee to recommend suitable measures in order to minimise the vacancies in IITs
According to data compiled by Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) BHU has reported maximum vacancies of all the seats going unclaimed in IITs in the five years since 2013. The data also suggested that the number of seats lying vacant in the autonomous public institutes of higher technical education has seen a rising trend in the five years, except in 2014, prompting the MHRD to set up a panel which made several recommendations to address the issue.
The IITs are globally recognized as centres of academic excellence in science and technology fileds, and are reputed for the outstanding caliber of the students graduating from them.
Press Trust of India reported that the committee, which was set up in 2017, submitted its report earlier this year.
MHRD constituted the committee to recommend suitable measures in order to minimise the vacancies in IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other Centrally-Funded Technical institutions (CFTIs), an official told PTI.
According to the MHRD data, a total of 274 seats remained vacant from 2013, which included 15 (in 2013), five in 2014, 39 in 2015, 96 in 2016 and 121 in 2017 of the nearly 11,000 seats across the IITs.
In IIT BHU, it recorded maximum vacancies across all IITs since 2013. It had 32 vacancies in 2017, 38 in 2016, 28 in 2015, three in 2014 and four seats in 2013.
The Indian School of Mines (which was upgraded to the status of an IIT in 2016) recorded 23 vacancies each in 2016 and 2017.
The IIT Kanpur and the IIT Hyderabad had all their seats taken between 2013 and 2017, while the IIT-Delhi recorded zero vacancy between 2013 and 2015.
In 2016 and 2017, the IIT-Delhi had two seats vacant in each year.
As far as IIT-Bombay is concerned, it had all its seats filled in 2013, 2014 and 2015, while had two vacancies in 2016 and one in 2017.
The committee recommended the institutions may review seats in each discipline based on employment opportunities, national requirement, available infrastructure and scope for future, the official said.
"Some disciplines may be considered for closure or be kept in abeyance for a few years, if needed. New courses and disciplines may be introduced only after carrying out market opportunity analysis," he added.
There are a total number of 23 Indian Institutes of Technology currently governed by IIT Council. Pursuant to the Budget Announcements 2014-15 and 2015-16, six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been established at Palakkad (Kerela), Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Jammu (J&K), Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Dharwad (Karnataka) and Goa. The Academic Session of IITs at Palakkad and Tirupati started in 2015-16 and that of remaining four in 2016-17 from their temporary campuses.
For improving Gender Balance in IITs, the IIT Council in its 51st meeting held on April 28, 2017, on the basis of the recommendations of a JAB Sub Committee, and decided to increase female enrolment in B.Tech. programmes of IITs from the current 8% to 14% in 2018-19, 17% in 2019-20 and 20% in 2020-21 by creating supernumerary seats.
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panel had recommended reservation for girl students to address the issue of a slump in the number of women students entering the prestigious institutes. The committee suggested creating up to 20 per cent supernumerary seats for girls out of the total number of seats.
On Friday, the Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Ashwini Kumar Choubey told the Parliament that there are 437 vacant seats in
MBBS course for the academic year 2017-18.
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