The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : IIT Hyderabad in expansion mode

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Wednesday, May 05, 2010
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

IIT Hyderabad in expansion mode

R. Ravikanth Reddy

‘Making fast progress on the research side apart from B.Tech'

The institute will add a few more teachers by August taking the total to 50
Total strength of students including B.Tech, M.Tech and Ph.Ds will go up to 500

Hyderabad: Just two years into existence, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad is enhancing the charisma associated with the IITs by expanding its academic activities to M.Tech and Ph.D programmes.

The institute is increasing its M.Tech programmes in civil, mechanical, electrical, computer science, material science, chemical engineer streams apart from an M.Sc programme in chemistry. “This year we will admit 70 students into M.Tech programmes and another 25 into Ph.D programme in tune with the mandate of promoting research culture,” said the IIT Hyderabad Director, U.B. Desai.

Speaking to The Hindu, Prof. Desai said among all the new IITs in the country IIT-H has been making fast progress on the research side apart from providing regular B.Tech programmes. The institute will add few more teachers by August taking the total to 50. The total strength of students including B.Tech, M.Tech and Ph.Ds will go up to 500 this year with the new admissions. “So we are almost able to meet the student-teacher ratio of 9:1, prescribed for the IITs,” Prof. Desai said.

Acknowledging the shortage of quality teachers for recruitment, he said IIT Hyderabad has been lucky given its location advantage. . “In fact, we got a teacher whom IIT Chennai wanted to recruit,” he said. Moreover, the faculty is young compared to other IITs. At the same time, the services of retired IIT professors settled in Hyderabad are also being used, making it a good combination of young and experienced teachers.

Even as the institute is gaining momentum on the academic side the delay over shifting the campus to its allotted land in Kandi village near Sangareddy is an issue. But Prof. Desai promises that it will be done in another two years. “Though there are a few issues with some parts of land we have been handed over land. Hopefully the ground breaking ceremony on the 531 acre land will take place in September or October and work will pick up pace from then,” he said. So far, the boundary wall is 75 per cent completed.

Prof. Desai said the process of inviting architects to give shape to the master plan is on and a fair idea of the construction will come once architects give their plans. He reminds that clearances from various authorities have to be taken. However, he said funding is not a problem as the Ministry of HRD has promised full support.

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