Should IITs Diversify ?

Nalanda is often called the first great university in recorded history. It had over 2,000 teachers and 10,000 scholars living on a residential campus. Subjects being taught: Mahayana and Hinayana schools of Buddhism, Veidic texts, philosophy, logic, grammar, astronomy, medicine and fine arts. Taxila, was known for its military science, Vedic teachings, law and medicine. The Massachusetts's Institute of Technology has under it 5 schools of learning, covering subjects like Engineering, Science, Management, Architecture, Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. We see a similar structure of education in Harvard, Oxford, Yale, et al.

Unfortunately, in India, the system of education is highly compartmentalized. We see professional colleges, which provide specific education, in their own specialized field. A student of Engineering, say, entering such a college, will never be exposed to quality education in any other branch of learning.

This is not what education was supposed to be. When you educate a person, you inherently give him/her the right to choose what to learn. Such a unidirectional approach to education can only harm the student. Agreed, that at a certain point of time, one has to decide one's major and career path, but that does not, in anyway mean that you make the system so rigid, that a person is forced to study and study only what he chose while joining a college.

While discussing this topic, one comes across people who argue that additional faculty, or visiting professors can always be hired in the required field of study. But these orphan departments can never hope to compete with the exposure and the experience that a faculty of a full fledged school of learning will bring to an educational institution. I call them orphan departments, because until very recently, IIT Madras had such a department, the Humanities and Sciences Department, whose only aim was to the supplement the education of the engineering students by providing them with some introductory courses in economics, philosophy, and literature. This department had no undergraduate students, and very few doctoral scholars. Now, they offer a dual degree undergraduate program, and since its inception, the department has seen a 25% growth in faculty strength. They will attract better and more experienced faculty, notwithstanding the increase in the variety of courses they will have to offer students of other branches.

The Indian Institutes of Technology. Technology, and not business, or arts, or social sciences, people might say. Well, being an institute of technology, one has to keep up with the scientific and technological developments. And when you realize, that by exposing students to a wide range of subjects drom different disciplines, you actually encourage original and innovative ideas, it is time you step up and implement it.