IITs to soon venture into other domains

BANGALORE: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will soon go beyond their traditional domain of technological education. Law, management, social sciences, and even medicine are fields that they will make their foray into.

Very soon, the IITs will offer education in many fields apart from technology and engineering. Talks are on to conduct post graduate programme in medical science in premier IITs.

IIT Hyderabad and PES Bangalore have recently started collaborative biomedical research projects. This will act as a prelude for IIT Hyderabad before starting PG courses in medical sciences.

"The ministry of human resources development is supporting us and we are discussing the modalities and framework of the courses. After a decision is taken in this regard, we will be able to offer PG courses in medical science," said Professor U B Desai, director of IIT Hyderabad.

"We are not only looking into medicine. IIT, Bombay already has Shailesh J Mehta School of Management and IIT Kharagpur has Vinod Gupta School of Management," he said. "We want to expand into management and medicine and give a holistic spectrum of education."

Dr V C Vivekanandan, former dean of Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, IIT Kharagpur, said, "The law school in IIT Kharagpur started in 2006. The first batch has just passed out. If it is successful, we can replicate it in other IITs."

He added, "Now technology is not standalone. It is related to management and law. A number of senior managers in MNCs have a technical background. So, now almost all IITs have a management school... Similarly, medicine is not separated from technology. Medical technology is in fact the buzzword."

Professor Ranvir Singh, ViceChancellor of National Law School, Delhi University, and president's nominee for selection in IITs, however was a bit skeptical about IITs moving beyond their domain.

He said, "IITs should first ensure that they have adequate number of teachers before venturing into different streams. I don't think there is a problem for management schools in IITs as they have a good interaction with industry. But medicine and law are subjects which they should tread carefully. They must ensure that they maintain the standard and quality in these fields."