IITs strike partnerships with global varsities

Offers tailor-made courses to students from other campuses

Even as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) nationwide continue to be sore over autonomy and pay revision issues, some of them are launching projects along with global universities to offer students and faculty more opportunities besides collaborative research and development with foreign academic partners.

IIT-Delhi, for instance, has designed four courses for the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Several students in Ethiopia are currently studying engineering and technology in virtual classrooms led by IIT Delhi teachers. The idea to make Ethiopia’s students more tech-savvy was mooted by its ambassador to India and even its prime minister was eager to have an association with IIT-Delhi.

“The Ethiopian government is making rapid expansions in education but it does not have the adequate infrastructure. The ambassador talked to us and then the process moved. Even their prime minister was very eager for such association,” M Balakrishnan, dean of post-graduate studies at IIT-Delhi, said. To begin with, IIT-Delhi has designed four courses for the Addis Ababa University. Two courses - construction technology and management, and chemical engineering - have been taught for a semester. The other two courses - computer engineering and manufacturing engineering - will complete their first semester in a couple of months.

“Initially, we have a four-year agreement with Ethiopia. Our job is to develop curriculum, set up a laboratory, deliver lectures both through virtual classroom and face-to-face mode. We are also responsible for students’ evaluation, but the degree will be awarded by the Addis Ababa University,” said Balakrishnan.

Ethiopia has set a target of producing 10,000 science and engineering students at the higher education level in next five years or so, and has availed of the expertise of the IIT-Delhi as one of the partners. At least 46 faculty members are involved in the project and IIT-Delhi offers up to 70 hours per week of instructions. Around 50 students are involved in each semester for each course.

Likewise, Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Texas, San Antonio, US, for collaborative research. The project involves around five faculty and 10 students.

“The areas identified for collaborative research include fields like bio-material, where the focus will be on the research collaboration, faculty and student exchange programme. The co-operative research programme in other areas of mutual interest will be conceived later,” said K Muralidhar, dean - research and development of IIT Kanpur. The Indo-US center for bio-material is funding the project. The long-term goal of this MoU is to research on low-cost implants in a human body, like knee replacements, etc. In India, currently knee replacements are expensive and costs between Rs 30,000 and Rs 2 lakh.

In another deal, IIT-Kanpur has signed an MoU with its Malaysian counterpart, Universiti Sains Malaysia, for setting up of an electronic hub in Penang. Muralidhar said that around 20 faculty and about 100 students are expected to be involved in this project. The research projects would be funded by industry partners in communications and the semi-conductor industries.

Around 20 training and 40 research programmes have been identified, which will be carried out in various phases. In phase one, two courses, namely ‘Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits’ and ‘Radio Frequency Technology’, will be taken up for the industries for the first six months, where IIT-K faculty will visit Penang.

IIT Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), on the other hand, is setting up a 350-700 bed medical college and has signed a MoU with University of California, San Diego, as a partner for this venture. The collaboration is both for part-financing the project as well as an academic collaboration.

Initially IIT-KGP would fund the project with the Rs 800 crore investment it had announced earlier in infrastructure expansion till 2011.

The institute is also seeking additional Rs 1,000 crore for further expansion, to build more centres of excellence and to accommodate a total of 20,000 students by 2020 from 8,000 right now, among other plans.

The institute already carries out research related to biomedical engineering, medical biotechnology, development of non-invasive testing devices, reproductive healthcare and medical science and technology. The medical science and technology is a unique programme in the country where MBBS doctors are admitted and they get a Masters Degree in Medical Science and Technology in three years.

“To boost this research and education programme, particularly in the interface areas of medicines and engineering, the institute is in the process of building a state-of-the-art hospital of 300-750 beds. To support this hospital there will be a Centre of Excellence in training of paramedical staff and public healthcare specialists. Graduate and postgraduate programmes in medicine will be its natural outcome. Both the multispeciality hospital and the Centre of Excellence on paramedical training are being set up on public-private-partnership mode. University of California, San Diego, who has one of the best health science faculty in USA, is our partner in this venture.A MoU to that effect will be signed on August 18, 2009, which is also the foundation day of the institute. The hospital will be an academic unit of the institute and there will be collaborative research between the faculty of the hospital and our engineering departments. This is expected to bridge the gap between two distinct disciplines of medicine and engineering,” Damodar Acharya, director of IIT-KGP, said.