The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) may soon recruit foreigners as faculty on the payroll. Responding to a question on the matter on the sidelines of the second Rajiv Gandhi oration organised by Mumbai University’s Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Contemporary Studies (RGCCS), Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Arjun Singh said “we have no problem if the IITs or the IIMs want to recruit foreign faculty and have them on payroll”.

Currently, four foreign nationals who are on the payroll at IIT Bombay are all of Indian origin. While the institute also has two foreigners as professors, they are on contract.

To tide over the problem of shortage of professors and attract the best from abroad, IIT Bombay, like its counterparts, had earlier asked the Government to allow them to hire foreigners on a full-time basis. “We have been pushing for this proposal for some time now and the response has never been negative,” said IIT Bombay Director Ashok Misra. He said professors in eastern Europe have expressed their willingness to come to IIT and work.

Meanwhile, even as Singh handed over the certificate of autonomy to RGCCS, he announced that through the University Grants Commission, a grant of Rs 2 crore will be extended to the centre for infrastructure and academic purposes.

Saying that the HRD Ministry must look into the issue of larger universities facing the problem of shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff, Vice-Chancellor Vijay Khole reiterated Mumbai University’s proposal to accord it the status of national university. Singh said as Prime Minister, one of the first issues that Rajiv Gandhi decided to address was education. “The national education policy of 1986 was reworked and the same policies continue to guide us today,” he said.

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