It was the idea of late Pandit Jawharial Nehru, of setting up national institutes to provide scientists and technologists of the highest caliber who would engage in research, design and development to help guide the nation towards self-reliance in the technological needs. Five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were started at Kharagpur (1950s), Bombay (1958), Madras and Kanpur (1959), and Delhi (1961) with generous funding from the USSR, USA, Germany and UK as a result of his dream.
Today they stand tall among the educations institutions in India as IIT has universal recognition. The phenomenal success of the system is due to the important lesson that the IITs have been learnt over the years-that it is the freedom of work that motivates the teacher and the taught alike; it is this unique flexible academic structure that is instrumental in their producing graduates and postgraduates of such high quality that many are absorbed by several big-banner employers in India and abroad even before they complete their degree programmes. It is only in the IITs that the professors themselves draft the curricula and the contents of the various courses offered in different departments, and this confidence reposed in them spurs them on to deliver the best results. It also makes a Board of Studies for the purpose redundant. These are formally ratified by departmental committees that have a few student members too. This is something the universities and colleges can follow profitably.
The choice of the course is left entirely to students to make, with the help of the Faculty Advisors. Significantly, the students can opt for courses run even outside their departments, without exceeding the total number of credits prescribed for the semester. Thus a large number of students with varied backgrounds go through computer-based courses and enhance their employability in a broad spectrum of jobs. This facility can also be made available in universities and colleges.
The method of assessment of students is another feature unique to the IITs and is extremely student-friendly. The professor teaching a course conducts three tests within the semester and one at the end of it for a total of 100 marks, all in the class-rooms so that the students feel at home and perform to their full potential. Grades relative to the system awarded and it is all so transparent that students not satisfied can approach the professor concerned for redressed. This philosophy is extended to the practical examinations held by the professors. External examiners are appointed only to evaluate dissertations presentations; this system has been working very well all these years in the IITs and can be replicated elsewhere.
There are other plus points in the IITs that other institution will find useful-monitoring progress of students through committees, nominating to the highest decision-making body (the Senate), which makes sure the students abide by the institute's decisions and so on. The system of higher education in the country needs a thorough revamp even if it entails restructuring age-old bodies like the University Grants Commission. Perhaps the time has come to have a separate organization for administering higher education in science and technology that would raise its standards to those of the IITs by suitable adopting the IIT academic structure.