FOR THEM IIT NO GREEN PASTURE

The agitation by IIT teachers, demanding better pay, reveals the frustration of young engineers who opted for academics over an industry job which would have ensured lucrative salaries

Neha Pushkarna | TNN

Dr Vinod Kumar joined the faculty at IIT Delhi in 2007 after working in the industry for nearly 17 years. Amitabh Bagchi came on board as an assistant professor in 2005 after working as a postdoctoral fellow in foreign universities. Vinay Ribiero became a teacher at IITD in 2006 after getting a PhD in Houston. All these young engineer-turnedteachers came back to academics only because they chose to follow their hearts. Otherwise, teaching as a profession was quite unattractive, like it is for hundreds of engineers who graduate from the IITs every year.

An assistant professor (a PhD) gets anything between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 as the starting salary while an associate professor can expect to get Rs 35,000 after five to six years of experience. Though the Sixth Pay Commission will bring about a jump of Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000, it will still not be comparable with what their own students get right after BTech. Even a postgraduate teacher (PGT) is earning Rs 22,000 to Rs 25,000 after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission.

‘‘Students on the lowest rung of the batch get placed at Rs 5-6 lakh per annum. They earn in double lakh figures after a few years of experience, which we can’t even think of,’’ says Bagchi. According to IIT-D officials, the lowest salary package offered to any student,even this year, was a little over Rs 4 lakh per annum.

Better salaries can help fight the faculty crunch at IITs — many young faculty members have left over the past five years even as opening of new IITs and implementation of the OBC reservations have increased the demand for teachers.

Prof M Balakrishnan, deputy director, faculty, says: ‘‘The crunch is not in the number of applicants — it’s in quality. We don’t get many PhD scholars with a good academic background.’’ While the sanctioned strength of the faculty is 528 (which includes teaching, scientific & design and visiting faculty), only 456 positions have been filled.

The institution managed to appoint 25 new faculty members this year with an aim to keep the student-teacher ratio at 10:1. With more than 5,000 students studying on campus and more to join next year with the last leg of OBC reservations, maintaining this ratio will be a daunting task if enough teachers are not recruited. ‘‘The pay structure is not the only problem,’’ says Prof Balakrishnan. ‘‘The latest recommendations have made it even more difficult to recruit. They want us to recruit at least 10% lecturers, they want the assistant professors to be recruited only if they have a three-year experience after their PhD. Earlier, we used to include the period of PhD.’’ He adds that most teachers appointed for IIT-Punjab, being mentored by IIT-D, have one to two years of experience after PhD. ‘‘Who knows what will happen to those recruitments if the recommendation of the Sixth Pay Commission are implemented,’’ he wonders.

Soumyo Mukherji, who teaches in IIT-Bombay, feels the faculty at the premier institutes deserve a better deal than what has been handed over by the Sixth Pay Commission. Mukherji passed out of IIT-Kharagpur in 1989 and joined Tisco as a graduate-trainee on a monthly salary of Rs 3,700 and a scooter allowance of Rs 500 apart from an annual bonus of Rs 5,500 and leave travel compensation of Rs 5,000. “All this sounds ridiculous, but it was a great salary for a fresher. While I earned Rs 5,200 per month, a full professor at IIT, after putting in 20 years, took home Rs 5,100,’’ says Mukherji.

After completing his master’s and PhD in the US and declining a job that was to pay him $60,000 annually, he joined IIT-Bombay in 1997 “to give back to the system that I benefited from.’’ Today, Mukherji’s peers in the industry earn “much, much more’’ than him. But the 42-yearold professor isn’t complaining. “I feel coming to IIT has been the best move I have made. Nothing is more satisfying,’’ he says.

Ribiero of IIT-D adds that teachers who leave either join the industry or go to foreign universities. Private universities are also a major draw. According to Prof Kushal Sen, placement officer, IIT-D, nearly 100 MTech and MSc students were placed with private engineering colleges as teachers this year. ‘‘You need six to seven years to be eligible for teaching at IITs. But many other engineering colleges are willing to recruit at good salaries,’’ Sen says.

Monthly pay structure of teaching staff at IITs

LECTURERS RECOMMENDED
AGP | Rs 6,000 Rs 7,000 after one year of post-PhD experience. At least 10% of the faculty to be recruited as lecturers

DEMANDEDAbolition

ASSISTANT PROFESSORS RECOMMENDED
AGP | Rs 8,000 Minimum Pay | Rs 30,000 At least 3 years of experience after PhD

DEMANDED
AGP | Rs 8,000 with less than 3 year of experience Rs 9,000 with 3 yrs of experience Minimum Pay | Rs 30,000

ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS RECOMMENDED
AGP | Rs 9,500 Minimum Pay | Rs 42,800

DEMANDED
AGP | Rs 10,000 with the perks offered at this band Minimum Pay | Rs 42,800

PROFESSORS RECOMMENDED
AGP | Rs 10,500 Only 40% professors to placed at Rs 12,000 AGP after six yrs of service Minimum Pay | Rs 48,000

DEMANDED
AGP | Rs 11,000 with the perks offered at this band No limit on the number of professors placed in Rs 12,000 AGP after six yrs of service Minimum Pay | Rs 48,000
AGP: Academic Grade Pay

The government in any case can’t pay as much as the industry does. So to get teachers for IITs, it should only rely on the inner calling of a core group of people who want to teach
Subodh Kumar ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Quite a few teachers at IIT often take up research or consultancy jobs with industry to augment the income
Vinay Ribiero ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Sometimes I feel selfish. I could have been earning 10 times more had I been with the industry. But I joined teaching because I liked it
Amitabh Bagchi ASST PROFESSOR