IITs can hire on 5-year contracts; weak students to have exit options

Aligning themselves with global peers, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will now hire faculty on 5-6 year contract as against the current practice of making hires permanent after a one-year probation period. At the end of the contract, based on a review of their teaching and research, the said faculty will either be retained and promoted as tenured faculty or find their contract annulled.

“This is a step in the right direction. The MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) and IITs want the institutes to be on a par with global peers who follow the tenure track system for hiring faculty.