IIT Bombay to develop world-class labs, launch skill-based courses under Institute of Eminence tag

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay is looking to set up five world-class labs, enhance skill-based courses and have more postgraduate programmes in areas like history, film-making, and political science. IIT Bombay has been classified as an ‘Institute of Eminence’ (IoE) by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Under this plan, institutes like IIT Bombay with the IoE tag will receive government grants of Rs 1,000 crore over the next five years.

As part of its plan under this programme, IIT Bombay will introduce 100 new courses by 2022 and also have 10 percent of new admissions from other countries by 2022.

“There will be a major curricular revision with an aim to broaden education, enhance skill-based courses and liberal arts foundation,” the institute said in its plan document. The aim is also to create a mechanism (Senate sub-committee) for identification of new programmes/areas.

They have also proposed a realignment of existing programmes based on special needs of the city (possibly finance, commerce, entertainment), regional challenges, and faculty expertise.

IIT Bombay will also initiate new undergraduate programmes in existing academic entities and initiate joint academic programmes in healthcare in collaboration with medical colleges and research institutions.

The existing infrastructure will also be upgraded and new hostels will be set up to accommodate 12,000 students. For academically weak students, additional support will be provided by the institute.

For the first five years, the central government funding will be the largest source of funds for IIT Bombay followed by the IoE grant. Beyond that, project-based national and international funds will be used by IIT Bombay to grow and develop the institute.

The IoEs are proposed to have greater autonomy in comparison to other higher education institutions. For instance, they will be free to decide their fee for domestic and foreign students and have a flexible course duration and structure. Moreover, their academic collaborations with foreign institutions will be exempt from approvals of government or UGC except institutions based in MEA and MHA’s list of negative countries.