India scouts for faculty among bright NRIs

Updated on: Monday, December 20, 2010

A weak western economy has raised the hopes of top Indian institutions scouting to fill faculty positions. Even as the setting up of a government fund to attract academic superstars from abroad is in limbo, Indian embassies and high commissions have been roped in to sell the dream of a classroom called India to young PhD fellows.

Interestingly, the embassies have also obliged by setting up video-conferencing facilities for directors of Indian institutes to connect with persons of Indian origin interested in moving back to teach.

At some schools, the results are already showing. The Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B), in its bid to strengthen its research, has been on a hiring spree from top foreign universities. Since 2008, IIM-B has filled 23 faculty positions by hiring from universities like MIT, Wharton, Cornell, INSEAD and John Hopkins, among others.

These newly hired faculty members come armed with doctoral degrees. To motivate them to research, IIM-B is offering incentives, including participation in an international and national conference annually and additional perks if their work gets published in journals.

Some of the B-schools are also relaxing the academic criteria during hiring: joining letters are being handed out to Indians who merely hold a masters degree, but have rich experience in the corporate sector. “We are planning to introduce a new batch of professors with 15 years of experience in the corporate world,” said a senior IIM-B faculty.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have also designed bright advertisements and sent them to Indian embassies and high commissions in the USA, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Austria and Japan. “At present, there is an overflow of applicants wanting to teach in our institutes as employment opportunities for PhD fellows in the US and Europe are not very bright,” said IIT-Delhi director Surendra Prasad. In fact, IIT-Delhi has been conducting interviews with prospective candidates on Skype and has been able to draw some of the bright Indians back home.

There was a time in the 70s when several Indians who had flown out to the US in pursuit of a higher degree returned home to teach at the IITs that were designed to join the ranks of the Ivy League institutes. However, in the early 90s, the tech schools hit an all-time low in attracting Indians back as industries in America welcomed them with open arms.

With the economic power center shifting eastwards and India expanding its educational infrastructure, experts have often felt the need to bring back the minds that will shape the country's minds.

India scouts for faculty among bright NRIs

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