Albert Einstein

If at first, the idea is not absurd; then, there is no future for it.

Monday, December 28, 2009

IITs ... launchpad to IIMs !!!

I have been thinking about writing on this topic for quite sometime ... but neither had the courage nor the time to start it up. So here I am, with yet another question -
IITs were established in our country to be the pioneers in techincal education. But the recent trends show that students use it as a stepping stone to launch themselves either to Civil Services or for a career in Management. Should we now change the names of IITs to preIIM ...???

Its not that this question has just sprung off my mind just like that. I had the opportunity to study at one of the premier institutes of our country - IIT Delhi. During my 2 year stay in the campus, one thing surely caught my attention - almost all students want to make it to the IIMs .... Now saying that all students want to make to the IIMs is an overstatement. Of course there are some who like to stick to the technical area. The question is if the so called best techincal institute is producing management aspirants much more than engineers it is supposed to produce, is it fair to continue to pump money into such institutes.

What I feel is that the moment a student choses IIT Delhi over the other institutes, for a career in engineering, he is possibly not having engineering in his mind. Delhi is known for the coaching institutes,  for Civil Services, for Management and for what not !!! Even those people who are working with premier organisations of our country, when they get transferred to Delhi, one possibility is that he/she might be preparing for something like MBA or IAS/IPS kind of exams .... Well you can disagree with me on that note ... but these are my opinions ....

I know that you have all the tools which democracy has given in your hands ... like Right to profession, liberty etc etc .... and yes I know that no one can be and should be barred from making a career in his/her choice of profession. But the question still remains.

The only technical work that is done in these institutes are either done by PhD students or by MTech/MS students. Allow me to ask then, why don't we transform these premier IITs into institutes only for PG studies, by which way only those people will come who want to make a career in technical/research areas, rather than people who come to get hold of a degree from an IIT and utilize the resources to the fullest to become a Civil Servant or a Manager !!!