NIT raises student intake ;NIT: Broadening horizon

The Telegraph, Saturday, April 01, 2006

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060401/asp/jamshedpur/story_6042587.asp
NIT raises student intake PINAKI MAJUMDAR

NIT: Broadening horizon
Jamshedpur, March 31: The National Institute of Technology (NIT) has decided to increase the number of its students for the bachelor in technology (BTech) course from the next academic session.
NIT officials said the batch size from the next academic session (commencing in July) would be increased by 110 students. The existing batch-size is 280. In the next five years, the number of students will be increased to 780 students.
Director of NIT Ganapati Panda said the board of governors has taken a decision in this regard. According to Panda, apart from increasing the batch size, the institute will ensure that 50 per cent of the seats are reserved for students from Jharkhand.
?Every year, we will increase the students? intake and by 2011, the institute has a vision to take the number of students to 780,? said Panda, adding that the seats in the Masters in Computer Applications (MCA) course will also be doubled from July this year. At present, the MCA course has 30 seats.
The officials of the engineering college said the ministry of human resource development, which is the governing body, has also allowed NIT (Jamshedpur) to recruit 30 faculty members for various engineering departments.
According to Panda, at present the student-teacher ratio at NIT is 15:1, but after the recruitment of faculty members, the ratio will become 10:1, which will match the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) standards. The student-teacher ratio is 10:1 in all the IITs across the country.
Significantly, after being elevated to the status of NIT, the institute has brought in several changes under B. Muthuraman, the managing director of Tata Steel, who is also the chairman of NIT board of governors.
Some of the changes include the introduction of semester system of examination, enhancement of facilities in its laboratories and making the placement process go online.
NIT officials pointed out that they increased the number of students to ensure the companies that visit the institute for campus selection get adequate number of students. They said the decision was taken at the request of the companies participating in the campus selection process.
NIT is also going to introduce a new two-year MTech research program for those working on projects, to encourage more research and development activities at the institute.
NIT has also decided to increase the PhD fellowship from the existing 13 to 20 from July this year. The NIT council, which functions under the Union ministry of human resource development, recently had given a nod in this connection.