Research query to IITs fuels concern

The Indian Institutes of Technology have been collating data on the research output of each teacher since the government sought the information last month, a move that some faculty members see as interference.

The human resource development ministry had written to the 23 tech schools seeking the details for discussion at the September 27 meeting of the IIT Council, headed by the HRD minister.

“A handful among the IITs shared some information; the rest are collecting the data now,” a council member said.

Last month’s letter had sought the number of research papers published by each teacher and the “number of faculty members who have not published in reputed (sic) journals for the last three years”.