Full-time medical courses fail to enthuse most IITs

However, the institutes could offer inter-disciplinary courses in medicine and engineering

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) may have got the nod from the IIT Council to teach medicine, but barring IIT-Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp), none of the IITs will venture into full-time medical education in the near future.

“We will continue to offer courses related to medicine. But we do not wish to venture into medical education full time. We have access to good hospitals in our neighbourhood and as and when we need good technology, we use their services. IIT-Kgp is remotely located and needs a good hospital facility. This move will help them tremendously,” said Professor Surendra Prasad, director, IIT Delhi.

IIT council, the apex decision-making body of the technology schools, on September 11, allowed the IITs to offer medical education after seeking approval from the Medical Council of India to offer post graduate degrees in medicine.

The IITs can, however on their own, launch inter-disciplinary courses in medicine and engineering. Some IITs have been running similar courses since the past few years. The IIT Act of 1961 will have to be amended to include medicine as a subject that will be taught in the institutes.

“The permission from IIT Council does not mean all IITs will give a degree in medical education. They can offer a course. A 40-hour lecture for IITs is one semester course whereas, universities have the power to grant degrees. If we wish to introduce a medical course (which IITs have been delivering) we do not need permission from the Medical Council of India. We need their permission to grant degrees, which IIT Kgp may be doing,” explained an IIT director, on the condition of anonymity.

IITs said they would indeed be happy offering inter-disciplinary courses in medicine and engineering. “IITs starting medical education is too far fetched. They neither have the funds nor the expertise to expand in this area. We could deliver post graduate courses in some specific areas where technology is applicable or train doctors in the use of biomedical engineering or applications. It is certainly not about starting a medical school,” said an official of IIT-Madras.

For IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur, medical education does not figure for the next five years, at least.

“We have a good bio-medical engineering programme. Delivering a post graduate programme means we need to have a good hospital and carry out big expansion. We have good tie ups with local hospitals and we are happy with that at present. We may give it a thought five later,” said Professor Devang Khakhar, director, IIT-Bombay.

The whole idea of the IIT Council giving a go-ahead to the medical education programme, explains the IIT director, “is to facilitate IIT-Kgp which is deprived of good medical facilities owing to its remote location.”

IIT-Kgp had in August 2009, signed a $50-million MoU with the University of California, San Diego, to set up a state-of-the-art 300-bed hospital, expandable to 750 bed and a research center at the institute.

IIT-Kgp started the School of Medical Science and Technology in its Golden Jubilee year in 2001. Its objective was to provide a platform for interdisciplinary teaching and research in medical science and technology.

AK Majumdar, deputy director at IIT-Kgp had recently told Business Standard that the institute will explore the possibilities of building the proposed medical school on a public-private partnership.

“However, the cost of the project has gone up in the past one year and we will need to estimate how much it would cost us now.”

IIT-B, TIFR to set up national mathematics centre

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a National Centre for Math at IIT-B.

Mumbai has the largest concentration of mathematicians in India with the majority at TIFR, IIT- Bombay and Mumbai University. The institutes have well-developed mathematics departments of international reputation and the faculty members have strong research groups that would help organise various programmes of the Centre throughout the year.

NCM will be modelled on the famous Oberwolfach Mathematics Research Institute (MFO), in Germany, that was set up in 1944 and played an important role in re-establishing Germany as a leading nation in mathematics, post the Second World War. About 50 week-long international workshops and conferences are held per year at Oberwolfach. NCM aims to have workshops, conferences, instructional schools year-round for students, young teachers and researchers.