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Intermission

I will take a break from this blog until late August so that I can complete other urgent projects.

Formal Undergraduate Education at IIT -Part 1

The purported aim of undergraduate education at IIT is to produce creative engineers.

The IITs follow a system of education which is partly borrowed from the schools in the US and they add a few features of their own. Firstly , they follow a semester form of education. Each semester consists of 70-75 working days. Each working day starts at 0800 hrs and ends at 0500 hrs.

The Credit System
Each course offered by the Institute is allotted a certain number of credits. The number of credits is not arbitrary . It is based on the number of hours of classroom teaching and lab hours devoted to the course per week. Each classroom hour counts to 1 credit and 3 hours of lab counts as 1 credit. An undergraduate degree is complete when the students possesses 180-190 credits(there is variation amongst the various IITs).

The student does not have her pick of credits. All students take certain number of compulsory courses in the sciences, humanities and introductory engineering disciplines. The home department of the student also makes it mandatory for the students to take a particular set of courses from the department which constitute the core of the engineering major. She is also free to take a small number of courses according to her desire both within her home department and across the institute. The number and distribution of each of these categories will be given later in this essay.

Method of Instruction
The standard method of instruction is the lecture . Lectures last for 50 minutes which constitute one class hour. The number of lecture hours devoted to a theory course range from 2-4 per week. Homework is assigned on the basis of lectures and may be used as part of the evaluation procedure. There also exists a system of tutorials which provides an opportunity for students to bring greater clarity to concepts, get assistance in solving problems. The labs serve as the practical components for the theory courses. Courses are based to give a concrete edge to theoretical knowledge and demand an understanding of theory.

Method of evaluation of students
The method of evaluation is through a system of continuous assessment. Quizzes or hourly tests are constituted twice/thrice before the end of the semester and an exam is held at the end of the semester. Their usual contribution to final score is 20/20/60 , however this might vary according to the wish of the instructor. The exams are set by the instructor, scored by the instructor and graded by the instructor. Thus complete power resides with the instructor. There exists a class committee which has a consultative role in this process , but ultimately all power resides with the instructor. The IITs follow a system of letter grading where a letter covers a band of numerical scores.These letters are also assigned numeric value which quantifies your academic performance in the course . This numerical score is used to calculate the students CGPA/CPI. An example will make it clearer.

Evaluation of faculty
The faculty is evaluated by the students and their peers. The feedback given by the students is secret and is only revealed to the faculty concerned. The promotion of faculty crucially depends on their research output and teaching capability plays a minor role. No awards for outstanding teachers exist. Awards for outstanding research also do not exist.

Admission
The method of admission to the IITs is only through the Joint Entrance Examination. The joint entrance examination currently consists of three examinations in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. The syllabus of these examinations is decided by the IITs and is considerably more comprehensive and advanced compared to regular high school curriculum.Approximately 300,000 students give these examinations annually. The number of available seats is less than 4000.Thus only the top 1.4% gets access to an IIT undergraduate education.

History of Affirmative action around IITs

There are two affected parties in the case of affirmative action: faculty and students.

In the case of students, the IITs had no form of affirmative action until 1973 when it was implemented by the recommendations of the Chandy report.The reservation was carried down right to zero scores but the results were found to be highly discouraging. Which means that most of the SC/ST performed poorly or dropped out. Thus a revised measure was introduced, students who scored upto 2/3 of the last candidate in the General category attended the regular classes with students from the general category. The idea of the preparatory course was introduced in 1983 under which the rest of the SC/ST students underwent a preparatory course for one year and joined the regular students on satisfcatory completion of the preaparatory course.

Other forms of affirmative action have been proposed by the IITs themselves. One idea was to fund scholarships or set up good quality schools especially for young students from disadvantaged groups. Shown below is an excerpt from the text of a speech given Prof P V Indiresan on his retirement

Ten years ago I pleaded with the Parliamentary Committee on SC/STs
that they institute special scholarships for SC/ST students to study
in the best endowed schools in the country, even if such schools be
private ones. My contention was that when such students are exposed to
good teaching, they will be able to cope with higher studies far
better than what they can at present. The suggestion was rudely and
contemptuously turned down as that would take "too long a time".

I do not know when Prof Indiresan retired, I do know that it happened before 1998.This means that these proposals were given atleast in 1988 if not before. What can I deduce from this?That sheer political opportunism exists amongst our parliamentarians.

As to the faculty, no numerical quotas exist in the IITs presently. People have objected against this as can be seen here . The IITs have responded in multiple ways, saying that they are either exempt from resrvations since they belong to an elite category such as defence,space and others
or on other technical grounds. I wonder if this stands legal scrutiny.

Some have commented that this will dilute the quality of the faculty.I wonder if this argument holds water. Myabe some faculty from the IITs,IIsc /TIFR could respond?One thing is sure , that the IITs have made no publicized effort to attract,nurture SC/ST/OBC faculty. On the other hand , universities in USA are explicit about special schemes regarding recruitment, mentoring of faculty from minority groups.

I found an inetresting document written by Andre Beteille who until recently was a member of the National Knowledge Commission.He comments about affirmative action in faculty recruitment amongst many other things. He says

Official practice has been to equate affirmative action
with affirmative reservation in numerical quotas and to fill the quotas without
considering whether other things are equal, a little less than equal, or completely
unequal.

The logic of reservations or of positive discrimination is that special
opportunities should be created for some over and above the general provisions for
equality of opportunity for all. Now, if you create special opportunities for some, then it does eat into the provision of equal opportunities for all.

The question is one of balance and, once again, this question came up at the
time of the making of the Constitution of India. And the man who piloted it through the constituent assembly was himself from an untouchable caste: Dr. Ambedkar, a
formidable lawyer. In putting these proposals forward to the constituent assembly,
Ambedkar argued that there are several conflicting aims which have to be reconciled.First, there is the aim of providing equal opportunity for all, irrespective of caste, creed and community. That is very important. The second aim is to create special opportunities for those sections of society which have been severely deprived and disadvantaged. But he went on to add that these special opportunities should not be so extensive as to ‘eat up’ the general provision of equality of opportunity for all. Those were the words he used.

Do you include for instance, faculty appointments in universities? If you do that, then you will find that they are very poorly represented. There has been a long controversy over universities, which are autonomous institutions, and whether they are obliged to have quotas in faculty positions. Some universities have had them, others have not had them, and now they are under pressure to have reservations in faculty positions, and one doesn’t know what the outcome will be.

I find it very difficult to think of a university department functioning
successfully if the general impression is accepted, that Dalit students will not be taken care of unless there is a Dalit professor. Only a Dalit professor will take care of Dalit students properly. Tribal students will not be taken care of properly unless there is a tribal professor, and so on. In some states in India, where quotas have been in operation for some time, faculty positions are earmarked not only for specific subjects but also for specific castes or groups of castes. This creates an atmosphere of distrust which makes it extremely difficult for universities, hospitals and other modern institutions to function properly. Such an institution can carry quotas up to a certain point, but when they invade the entire structure of the institution, it becomes extremely difficult for it to function effectively.

You can read the complete document here

Demographics of higher education in USA and India/IITs

Some statistics regarding the scene in higher ed in US.These can serve us as a benchmark since the US possesses the best tertiary system of education in the world at present.

Number of universities which confer doctorates : 165 public universities and 94 private universities.

Number of universities which offer upto masters: 280 public universities and 362 private universities

Number of doctorates given between 1971 and 2004: 668956

Number of doctorates given in engineering between 1971 and 2004:81337

Number of doctorates given in physical sciences:64500

Number of doctorates given in biological sciences:73080

Number of doctorates in mathematics:16468

Number of doctorates in computer science:10750

I got this information from here .

Percentage of people between ages of 25-29 who accquire a bachelors degree:28 perceent. I got this information from here .

Of course these tables representa wealth of information. I could not find similar information on the NSSO website , but probably , I did not look hard enough. The only statistics I could find were on Mridula's blog.Only 7 percent of people between ages of 17-23 attend universities.

Only a small amount of information publicly exists about the IIT. I found that
133,245 students have received degrees from the IITs uptil 2003 and 1730 doctorates were awarded by the IITs between 2000 and 2003. I found this information in the IIT Review Report 2004 at the IIT Kanpur website I will update this information with more statistics from the IITs specifically ASAP.

Pies and shares

300,000 students vie for approximately 4000 seats in the IITs. Many stories lie beneath this last statement. Some of these stories can be teased out if one asks the right questions. Such as why do 300,000 people want to compete for 4000 seats? Why do only 4000 of these seats exist? Who are these 300,000 people?Are they girls, boys, rich , poor,forward castes,backward castes and so on. I somewhat know the answers to some of these questions and the rest remain shrouded in mystery, sometimes artificially created by suppression of information, sometimes they just are mysteries.

The question of 4000 seats is easily answered if one looks for a crude answer. Its money and exclusivity. The IITs eat up half the share of the budget pie allocated to higher technical education and nobody can afford more. Secondly , it is perceived that the brand quality of the IITs would fall if they start admitting more students. There are ways around both these constraints, infact the second is only a prejudice and thus we only need to think of money and that will be a topic for many other posts.

As to why 300,000 students want a place in the IITs. Its a combination of sheer hysteria, a little bit of educational awareness and rank stupidity. Ultimately its all based on the reality that almost all other engineering educational institutions in India offer a quality of education which is inferior to that of IITs. That is not to say that the IITs provide real classy education , but in a town of blind people, the one-eyed stand out. And why do I say this? Because the faculty at most other educational institutions do not engage in any frontier research, thus cannot bring any living perspective on the subject. As a side effect of this, their recommendation letters are also not as well recognized abroad when applying for graduate studies.

The infrastructure available to the students for participating in co-curricular and extra curricular activities in other places is significantly lower. Each IIT boasts of a stadium , a student center, funding for student projects, cultural festivals, technical festivals, something which other places just cannot afford.

Combined with the perception that all IITians get great jobs, hop abroad at the slightest opportunity and then live happily ever after in the land of milk and honey leads to the hysteria that we see. And it is compounded by the fact that most of these 300,000 have no idea of what engineering is(that they know what it is at graduation from engineering colleges is of course debatable) and thus it becomes mad rush to grab for the 'elixir' which will finally bring peace prosperity and happiness into the lives of those who finally enter the hallowed halls of the IITs.

What is the demographic composition of the 300,000 who are a part of this mad rush. Some things are known, that women do not constitute 50 % of this number . Infact they are nowhere close, they constitute only 1/8 of the applicants. What is the source of this percentage? For the answer we might have to travel in space and time. Well, the travel in space is literal, we must travel to Kota,Bhilai, New Delhi. The travel in time is more vague, but somewhere in that misty past, it was thought that women were not worth spending money upon. Now why do we want to visit Kota, because that is where Bansal Tutorials is, the trainers who shall show you the path to the IITs, who will train you in the obstacles that you shall face, who will shape what your eyes see, what your mind thinks , heck they will make you a new man. And why not a new woman , cos the 'protective' parents do not want to send their young girls to a place so far away and why would they spend a lakh or so for this journey for 'girls' . Cos that is the fees charged by the great teachers Bansal for showing you the one and true path. Some say that there are other paths to be showed by Ramaiah in Hyderabad , FIITJEE but those are academic matters, in the end they all lead to the same place. the great IITs.

More digging into the demographics next time.

An Experience in Excellence

Read this report written in late 1980s:
INDIAN INSTITUTES OF TECHNOLOGY - AN EXPERIENCE IN EXCELLENCE

An excellent report which gives a historical background on the IITs, their administrative structures, their strengths, their weaknesses and their criticism.

Reservation in IITs

The Proposal: 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes(OBCs) to be implemented in centrally funded universities including IITs,IIMs,AIIMS and other medical colleges.

Demographic facts: The Mandal Commission stated that 52 percent of India was classified under OBC status. However they used data from 1952. Present day data from NSSO tells us that 32.1 percent of the country can be classified as OBCs. It also mentions that 23 percent of college seats are occupied by students belonging to OBC category.

Case for Reservation for OBCs
1. The OBCs have been discriminated against in the past and are currently being discriminated against. This discrimination takes two forms: social and economic. Economically these students do not have access to educational facilities such as good public schools, good private schools and good coaching schools. Socially these students are induced to believe that respect in society and good economic status is the preserve of the forward castes by birth.

2. The aim of the government, society at large and the constitution is to promote 'egalitarianism'’.

3. The way to achieve this aim is to reserve seats for OBCs at all levels of educational institutions and government job positions.

Case against Reservations for OBCs
1. Access to educational institutions such as IITs/IIMs/AIIMS and medical colleges should only be based on '’merit'’ since the stated aim of these institutes is to produce academic elites .

2. Due to reservations , the quality of the students entering and leaving the institutions shall decrease.

3. This will reduce the opportunity for the '’forward castes' to study at these educational institutions.

4. The seats shall be used by rich OBCs, the creamy layer. This represents an injustice as these people have no need for a reservation .

5. The OBCs cannot be treated on par with the SC/STs.

Rebutting the case against Reservations
1. An implicit assumption is that students who will potentially avail of this reserved category shall be devoid of ’merit’ and this assumption is incorrect. The current methods of measuring '’merit'’ through entrance exams especially JEE, CAT are biased against those who cannot afford to learn english , study at expensive schools and coaching classes.

2. The aim of producing academic elites can change. Social diversity is a valid aim and this is not exclsuive of merit.

3. Reserving seats shall allow students with innate capability to study at such institutions. Such students will be equally and more capable availing them selves of educational opportunities at these institutions. Indeed Reservations are a way of life in Tamil Nadu and these institutions
and students have done well for themselves.

4. Alternate methods of affirmative actions exist.

5. Methods of affirmative action such as adding points to scores obtained in entrance examinations for candidates based on their specific , flexible case of previous deprivation can be a measure to determine equalized scores.

6. Opportunity for general category students shall not decrease as the number of available seats shall be increased proportionately.

7. The creamy layers can be excluded.

Rebutting the case for Reservations
1. The questions of innate are irrelevant.Only the ability to absorb the educational material fruitfully and develop competencies in chosen area matter. The present method of estimating merit is through the entrance examination. The single entrance examination is noisy, unreliable but is currently the best method used in India till date . The evidence is the quality of students who have graduated from these institutions.

2. Changing the nature of entrance examination by framing it in the form of SAT will not necessarily benefit those who do not have access to good schools and coaching classes. Arguments about the noncoachability of SAT and GRE forget about the demand and supply situation in the United States. The supply of quality education outstrips the demand. Coaching is not necessary.

3. At postgraduate level in medical colleges , arguments of innate capabilities fail as all such students must have completed an undergraduate degree in medicine based on reservations. If these students had innate capability but could not compete in general category earlier then that ability would have been developed during their undergraduate days. If they still need reservations after 5 years of undergraduate studies , that only presents two conclusions: either they were too weak initially or else it is political opportunism.

4. Currently at IITs , the method for reservation is to allow students with upto 2/3 of the scores of the last general category candidate in the complete JEE list(not the IIT general category) to attend classes directly and the rest undergo a preparatory course for one year . On satisfactory completion of this course , they can join in the regular courses. Yet half of the reserved seats remain empty. The performance of these students after this point is undocumented.

5. Seats in educational institutions cannot be increased arbitrarily by govt. diktat without corresponding effects in the running of the institutions. This represents a lack of autonomy in the fundamental academic freedom of educational institutions, i.e:whom to teach. Does the government possess this right to dictate terms because they fund these institutions?

Questions that remain
1. What is the exact nature of egalitarianism that we want to achieve?

2. What is the contextual meaning of '’merit'’?

3. What is the role and right of government to regulate the functioning of academic institutions?

4. What is the opinion of the faculty as to the capability of the OBCs in handling the curriculum at these institutions?

5. Where is the hard data which shall allow us to sharpen our questions and reasoning?