IIT faculty puts stir on hold

After almost two months of heartburn, including a day-long fast on September 24, over the perceived unfairness of the ministry of human resource development over their pay structure and autonomy, the All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIITFF) today decided to “put on hold any further agitation”.

“We had held a protest fast and boycotted classes because we wanted the government to hear us and meet us. As of now, things seem to be moving in the right direction,” AIIITFF President M Thenmozhi said. IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) are the country’s premier engineering colleges. They are owned and run by the government.

For the last few years, IIT faculty associations have complained that salaries are too low to attract good quality teachers. IITs had hoped that the implementation of the Goverdhan Committee report, which recommended in February higher salaries for all technical education teachers, will resolve the issue. However, the revised pay structure announced by the ministry in early August was way below the expectation.

Faculty associations were also unhappy about a clause which said there will be a 40 per cent cap on professors who are eligible to receive higher pay after six years in the post. Also, at the assistant professor level, the ministry had notified that one must have three years’ work experience and a PhD degree. This meant that IITs would not be able to take fresh graduates as permanent faculty members.

While being non-committal on the pay structure issue, Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal yesterday assured IITs that they had the authority to relax the guidelines in “exceptional” cases. As a follow-up measure, around seven IIT directors and 11 AIIITFF members met today to discuss what the term ‘exceptional’ would mean and how it would pan out in practice.

“The meeting today between the faculty members and directors was fruitful. We will evolve a committee where nominated IIT faculty members, directors, nominees by directors, government officials and IIT Council members will participate. The IIT Council will meet again on October 19, and decide on ‘exceptions’ and performance-related incentives, among other issues,” said Thenmozhi.

The IIT Council is the highest decision-making body of IITs and is headed by the human resource development minister.