By IANS,
New Delhi : The boy-girl student ratio in the undergraduate courses at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) may soon see a positive turn. Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal Wednesday directed the IITs to admit more female students.
“Now it’s (boy-girl ratio) about 10-12 percent and this needs to improve. We need to formulate an action plan to increase the intake of girl students in the IITs,” Sibal said during an interaction with top officials of the country’s 12 IITs here.
The minister asked the IIT directors to “develop a policy framework” and present it to the ministry soon.
Talking about shortage of faculties in these top engineering institutes, Sibal said “though it’s a genuine problem, it can not be solved overnight”.
To come over the situation, he suggested the IITs to have tie-ups with “universities, private educational institutes, the corporate sector and civil society”.
He asked the IITs to open more campuses and become multi-disciplinary.
“Open more campuses. For example, IIT-Kharagpur can have its campus in Delhi too. Spread your wings like an octopus, I will support you.”
“You need to have multi-disciplinary approach in education. Why can not you have a law school inside your campus. Why can not an engineering student learn about management, economics and biology?” he said.
Answering a question on whether he proposes to turn IITs into universities, Sibal said: “Though not exactly, the ethos of an university can be adopted for their betterment. They must go multi-disciplinary for the betterment of students, for themselves and for a better future.”