diff --git a/_posts/2016-10-13-in-conversation-with-director-iit-roorkee.md b/_posts/2016-10-13-in-conversation-with-director-iit-roorkee.md index 4fb5d32..83dfdb4 100644 --- a/_posts/2016-10-13-in-conversation-with-director-iit-roorkee.md +++ b/_posts/2016-10-13-in-conversation-with-director-iit-roorkee.md @@ -14,17 +14,78 @@ _As our Director comes to the end of a successful tenure, we spoke to him regard -### Highlights from the video +### How has your time in Roorkee been? -* _“We have tried to make the system from institute centric to student centric. But students are not an enlightened lot.”_ -* _“The thinking process and perception of everybody need to be changed. Self-interest among students have become paramount here. If 8000 students here work together, who can do something against them? I am making a controversial statement here. Even your Cultural Council is not united. What follows is the divide and rule policy.”_ -* _“One of the first things I hated when I took charge was to try to say okay to everything. The curfew of girls -we said let’s do something about it because I felt it’s criminal to impose something like that. But immediately a section of girls came and told that they feel safe being locked up at 11 pm. I was shocked.”_ -* _“We get the best people from around the world- fantastic researchers, faculty. But once they come, Roorkee grows in them. You can take a person out of Roorkee, but you cannot take the Roorkee out of that person.”_ -* _“In other IITs Gen Secretary banna tho kisi ko pakad ke banaata he. I still remember 3 years back when the guy who became the SAC head was taken in a procession around the campus. Come on, What was that?”_ -* _“IIT Roorkee can easily become the 3rd best IIT. But we are totally satisfied with the 6th rank. Unless we want to change, it can’t happen.”_ -* _“Even in an IIT system, I see someone calling a one-year senior ‘Sir’. I am shocked.”_ +I think I have loved it here in Roorkee for two reasons. One, I've learnt a lot about being a leader because that itself is a huge learning experience. The second part is of course just being here. I mean, I think, I’m proud of the fact that this is possibly the most beautiful campus in India. And that it has been maintained reasonably well. So, I think those are the two parts which I think are very important why I say that I loved it. -___Following are the questions not covered in the video :___ +### Can you recount some major projects undertaken during your tenure? + +Two or three major changes things that I can say, one is the influx of young faculty members- the average age going down from 52 to under 42 is huge. +Second thing that I think that has changed is, slowly but surely, a research culture is creeping in. The number of PhD students that came here were about 750. +And graduating were about 120-130. This year we have about 1600+ PhD students, and the ones graduating, around 292. The number of sponsored research projects have grown, although not much as I'd like to. + +Five years in an institution is a very small time. You can't make large changes when because you make very large changes, there's always this chaos that accompanies them. And I hope that the Advaita ERP programme which is trying to get everything online and connected to each other, will have a long lasting impact. So, I think I’ll probably mention these three as far as the subject matters. + +### You have served as a dean in IITB for six years. What difference do you find in the administrative functioning in Roorkee and in Bombay? + +You know, today IIT Bombay is a very different place. It's actually more bureaucratic than possibly, us. I jokingly tell people that over here we try to break the bureaucracy and IIT Bombay took the bureaucracy that we left! + +When I was over there, I think, fundamentally, the difference between IIT Roorkee and IIT Bombay of that time is that the Director does not matter. There's a lot of delegation, of authority, and responsibility. The authority delegation, I’ve done over here as well. But the responsibility part that the heads of the departments think about their departments and work towards its betterment and not think of themselves remains. + +When I was the dean, I very rarely told the director what I was doing. It's only when I needed him to be there for this and this reason that I spoke to him. So the director could look at the outside world and look at the big picture. + +This place has a history of the head of the institution being the orator. In the sense that everybody at that level at the institution looks upto him ki ye baat karega. That aspect was not over there and I know it because who was the director over there, is now the chairman of the Board of Governors over here. + +I think in an academic institution debate is a very important part. If someone will say something, you have to defend it. That is something that I don't see here. Files come to me, and, I find no reason for it. We are trying to bring changes, with SAP, and all that process. +We are trying to create something but how that will work out is something that we don’t know. I think here we are very centralised. I have to tell everyone what's to be done. The head of a department just forwards it and ultimately lands up over here. + +Today IIT Bombay is very very different. I mean, for small small things, it become so complicated. I would say that between IIT Bombay of today and IIT Roorkee of today, IIT Roorkee is the better place because it’s moving towards more openness, more flexibility whereas IIT Bombay is going towards more rigidity. Because there's whole lot of rules and regulations. So, I think they are going on different trajectories. Where we are relative to each other, I can't tell because I don’t spend too much time in Bombay. So, I think that's the key thing. + + +### We still have some archaic rules, a curfew on girls and a relatively rigid academic system. What are the roadblocks to changing these at IITR? + +About three years ago, I completely changed the academic system. I brought in flexibility, and whether the flexibility in reality, is happening is something that I don't know. What we are trying to make is that we are trying to do changes from institute centric to student centric. +Unfortunately, students are not, a very enlightened lot. The fact that each one of the undergrad students can choose his or her own path is something that, and I think, and I do agree on paper it looks beautiful. There are certain hitches, that are going to come, but I think with what we are trying to do, that academic flexibility will come along. It may take two to three years for systems to change. I think that's all I can think of. + +One of the first things I did when I came back here, is try to say okay let’s look at the curfew of girls, right? Let’s do something about it. Immediately, another section of girls came in and told me that, "Sir, we feel safe being locked up at night." + +I said ‘Boss!”. You see, the point I am trying to make is that one group of girls came and said, "Sir, we want to remove the restrictions". I said, “Sure! I think it's criminal”. But then, almost half an hour later, another batch of girl students came in and said, “Sir please don’t change it!”, our parents are very happy. + +I can't handle this, because I do not understand this. IIT Roorkee has surprised me over and over and over and over again. + +### IITR has been consistently ranked as the sixth best. Taking the ranking at face value, where do you think lies the difference between us and the original five IITs? + +The thinking process. The thinking process of everybody, including the students. I blame students, mostly. The last time I went to Saharanpur campus I told the students there that you are not IIT students; what you did IIT students would never do. So I think, because to a certain extent that at all levels, this place still does not believe that it's an IIT. And that's where the history comes in, right? + +All the other IITs were created afresh, and they started as IITs. This was the University of Roorkee, which became IIT. I'll also say that University of Roorkee had a lot of good things that were destroyed in the first 3-4 years of being an IIT. + +I think, the fact is that,I'm trying to make the students run things. I've seen that even among a lot of students, self interest becomes paramount. Such a thing becomes an issue. I think that is fundamentally the issue is over here the mindset is not about the institution but ourselves. I’ve mentioned this to the faculty, I have mentioned it to my Deans, and all my students that self-interest determines what you are. I just lay my case. If 8000 students all work together who can do anything to them. But, even a batch of 60 students there’s no unity. + +The cultural council is not united. Once if the cultural council is united, and therefore what happens is, again, and I am telling you that I'm making a controversial statement over here, that, you lose out. Because, the divide and rule policy! + +I get the best people from around the world. Fantastic researchers, brilliant faculty. They come over here, and Roorkee grows over them. And there’s a statement and I'll go with it, that you can take a person out of Roorkee, but you cannot take the Roorkee out of a person. +Even alumni. When I'm talking about IIT Bombay too. We used to have these gatherings of 5000 people, everybody working right? + +And this is fundamentally. I'm telling you frankly, IIT Roorkee easily, easily, with almost no effort can be the third best IIT. Why, because IIT Bombay and Delhi are currently very well established, you know the why that is? Because those two IITs are on autopilot. In the sense that you don’t have to tell the faculty anything, you don’t have to tell students anything. Everybody does what is best for the institution. They do sponsored research of almost a hundred and fifty crore rupees a year. + +I'm telling you, the ranking is fundamentally about being known in the world. +Fundamentally. I'm telling you, how the students are different from the other IITs? In other IITs, General Secretary banta hai to kisi ko pakad ke banate hain wahan pe. Koi banana hi nahi chaahta. Yahaan pe, I still remember, about three years ago where the guy who became the SAC ka kya hai President, usko kandhe pe leke you people were announcing. Delhi University hai kya hai yaar. I mean, it was a guy who was like, and he was being taken around by students and I was like, kya hai yaar. + +I think every piece of the puzzle, okay, is, is equally responsible for IIT Roorkee sixth rank. +Easily, we are better than Kharagpur, Kanpur, and Madras. And I am the person who has been in all these places. I'm telling you very frankly. The sixth rank is because we ourselves are totally satisfied being the sixth IIT. We do not aspire for anything better than the sixth rank. + +It is every student for himself or herself, this is how it is. Faculty members will always be. +So, I think that culture, that old culture still here. I'm shocked, even in IIT system I feel someone calling a one year senior "Sir". That used to be like, for officers! You know, that culture has not grown out of this place. And that's the reason why it exists. I'm telling you very frankly, if today you look at it from hard basis, its basic perception. The external perception is what matters. Today, IIT Hyderabad is better known than IIT Roorkee. +Internationally nobody knows IIT Roorkee. + +I think that, that the main thing IIT Roorkee lacks is a todo attitude. Go out, and tell the people that we will do it for you, okay? We will work with you. These are the areas that are our strengths and that's all for this this this this purpose. That I think is the key to IIT Roorkee being third very easily nothing, no doubt. I think that's the fundamental issue. + +### Undergraduate Research at IITR pales in comparison to the other IITs. We have a minimal number of students taking up research as a career. How can we turn this around? + +Undergraduate research is a tautology. Undergraduates cannot do research. Because to do research, you have to gain so much knowledge and you cannot. What can an undergraduate do? Undergraduates have ideas. They need to solve a problem. We need to develop something to solve a problem. That is something that cannot be individually pursued. + +Form teams. Solve problems yaar. You see, that's what I'm trying to say. If you look at it, that's what I was trying to tell the students also. And I support all students. Do something yaar. Get an approach. Try to solve a problem. Research leave it to the Phd students. +If you look elsewhere, none of them are doing research. If they are doing research it is stupid. Because they don't have any knowledge. You people don't have knowledge. But you have ideas. Ideas do not require knowledge. ### What is the biggest regret from your tenure here at IIT Roorkee?