IIT Kharagpur, which has suspended admission to the PhD and MS programmes because of a severe shortage of hostel accommodation, will not be able to resume the admissions before July 2024, said an IIT official.
Representatives of the research scholars’ association spoke to the IIT administration about making alternative arrangements so the admissions could be resumed at the earliest.
The association proposed that students be accommodated in rented houses outside the campus till adequate hostel facilities are developed, said a research scholar. But it was struck down for security reasons, he said.
The accommodation issues are likely to be sorted out by the admission season for the next autumn semester (July), said an IIT Kharagpur official.
“It appears that we will miss a semester. Admissions will resume in the next semester. By then, it is expected that the accommodation issue will be taken care of,” said an IIT official.
A teacher said a letter was sent to the IIT Kharagpur director on behalf of the IIT Kharagpur Teachers’ Association as the suspension of admission threatened to “harm the image” of the institution and affect its “ranking”.
The letter says: “IITTA (IIT Teachers’ Association) feels that even a temporary suspension of admission will harm the image of IIT Kharagpur…. The under-emphasis of our research programme vis-à-vis all other programmes affects our standing among prospective faculty, research students, the community and the funding organisations.”
“This will have an effect on the ranking of the institute and the IOE (Institute of Eminence) mandate. Several departments will face difficulty in running courses and labs effectively without adequate and regular supply of PhD and MS students.”
The letter urged the authorities to plan “seriously to prioritise research and attract high-quality research students by allocating adequate resources for their accommodation and infrastructure….”
A member of the teachers’ association said they sought an immediate meeting with the director, V.K. Tewari, to work with the administration to make the admission of research students possible this semester by discussing alternative accommodation arrangements.
“We could help fresh entrants find PG accommodation, provided the institute supports the students with HRA (House Rent Allowance). Since we are an entirely residential campus, we should be able to make alternative facilities available to the students. But the director has yet to grant us an audience,” he told Metro.
Calls, text messages and an email from this newspaper to the director failed to elicit any response.
This newspaper reported on October 15 that the IIT had suspended its PG and MS admissions.
The letter by the teachers’ association says: “The suspension of research admission will make it difficult to execute funded projects that require talented research staff.”
Research scholars who had enrolled at the institute in July were told that they were required to make arrangements for accommodation outside the institute on their own because of a severe shortage of hostel facilities.
As the crisis has aggravated, admission has been suspended at the PhD and MS levels.
The surge in the number of research scholars over the past few years, coupled with the IIT’s failure to complete the construction of new hostels, is responsible for this situation, said a teacher.
