Choosing between the older NITs and the newer IITs can be tricky.A student should ask, what should be my choice of institute? How should I go about this? CONCEPTREE is here to help you solve the dilemma.
Lets’s dig up some common conflicts that students have-
Infrastructure:
This is a primary concern among students. Yes most of the newer IITs are still in temporary campuses or have partially moved into their new campuses. In comparison, it seems ideal if one wasn’t disturbed with living in temporary conditions or in rented premises. Older IITs have the advantage of having their infrastructure in place and students can rest assured about it.
By the same yardstick, newer IITs are coming up with campuses which accommodate the shortcomings faced by the older ones. Like IIT Madras now faces acute shortage of space with regard to classrooms, hostel rooms etc and can’t build in the existing area due to restrictions. It is also a fact that due to this, students are forced to adjust. This problem is being faced by other older IITs too as the number of courses grow, student intake grows and more such problems come to the fore.
It is also a fact that newer IITs will face hiccups in terms of new infrastructure when things are new but then other side of the coin at the older IITs shows old infrastructure with not much improvement since inception. Besides, every new IIT set up is done under the eye of a mentor IIT which is one of the older IITs. So the infrastructure will be on the lines of the mentor IIT keeping their constraints in view and trying to eliminate them.
Faculty:
One of the most serious problems faced by the IITs alike is the acute shortage of good and competent faculty. The newer IITs face more flak simply because they are in the building stage but it is a fact that the requisite faculty numbers are lacking in all the IITs albeit in different ratios.
But the fact still remains that all the IITs especially the newer ones are aggressively trying to recruit competent faculty. It is also a fact that most of the faculty at the IITs are qualified irrespective of new or old.
Student Ratio:
This definitely has the new IITs at an advantage. The setting up of any IIT is done with just 4 core branches and 120 seats as mentioned for the latest IITs at Tirupati and Palakkad. There is definite close interaction between the faculty and the students in the newer IITs comparatively. Personalised education and attention is usually more in smaller set ups while the older IITs are now so large with not just UG but PG, research facilities and much more that this camaraderie is practically nonexistent.
The student interaction is also closer across disciplines in newer IITs as students learn to depend upon one another within a new set up where the facilities are being put in place.
Extra Curricular Activities:
An important factor is the extracurricular activities that students can pursue at the IITs. The older IITs have established clubs, annual events and more for the students interested in activities like music, dance to name a few. Students even have clubs to pursue their hobbies and interests. Older IITs have the advantage of having experience in these areas on hand and their students slip easily into becoming members. Students here can hone their skills & interest much better with the facilities available.
The disadvantage or advantage as it is to be taken at the newer IITs is that the students have to start these activities along with other interested students. They stand to gain the experience of being initiators, mentors and more. They learn to cope with hiccups and deal with the problems that arise.
Accessibility:
One of the major concerns of many parents and students alike is the accessibility of the newer IITs. They are definitely not situated in places that are tough to reach. But yes, places like Guwahati do have their own drawbacks like the frequency of trains etc.
A look at the location of the older IITs makes all students glad. They are definitely at an advantage when accessibility is looked at. But the newer IITs also are located within reach. They are also located at lesser polluted places if one looks at the environmental aspects when compared to the metros like Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi.
For female students especially, parents are worried about the hostels, location constraints. In such a case, it is advisable to check the accessibility details given on each IIT’s webpage and talk to the officials if this is a major concern.
Placements:
At the end of the course, this is what most students look forward to. The very reason for their hard work is a good placement. In this aspect, the older IITs have the advantage of experience, reputation and more. The newer IITs though are not far behind. Many companies are also open to employing candidates from all areas as the calibre of the candidates matter than the alma mater. The mentor IIT also lends helping hand for the initial students who belong to the earliest batches with the help of their placement cell.
Other areas like Research, Academic Collaborations and such are at the initial stages in the newer IITs. But that is to be expected. “Rome was not built in a day” – all the older IITs also took time to develop to where they are today. This is an advantage that students at the older IITs have and will always have. Newer IITs are on their way to establishing themselves into renowned institutes and hopefully may boast of such facilities in the future.
It is advisable to use the social media like Facebook to check the alumni, student opinion about the IITs you wish to choose. Almost all the IITs have groups and students are much active on social media. They give many details about a lot of student concerns and such.
WHY DO PEOPLE PREFER NEW IITs OVER OLDER NITs?
Global Recognition of Brand IITs: IITs have always featured in the global chart of engineering colleges from India whereas NITs do not appear in the same list.
Better Student Quality in IITs: Higher cut-off marks during selection process at IITs draw better quality of students in IITs rather than NITs. Superior student intake results into excellent placement for IITians.
Better Faculty in IITs : IITs have one of the best engineering faculty in India. However IITs established recently, are undergoing a terrible shortage of faculty. IIT-Hyderabad has a requirement of 85 faculty members while it currently has 74 faculty members.
IIT-Bhubaneswar has total 50 faculty members against its requirement of 62 members. Owing to this serious concern, most IITs have already started aggressive communication campaigns across the country to reach out to post docs and graduate students of top universities worldwide. NITs have also been facing shortage of quality faculty for a while now.
Stronger Academic Collaboration in IITs : IITs undertake greater number of projects with esteemed institutions like ISRO, DRDO, BARC etc. NITs research work is not at the same magnitude of IITs.
Better Infrastructure at IITs: IITs have better Infrastructure with spacious campus, good research labs etc. The popularity of IITs among Engineering aspirants is highly driven by its educational and college environment. The ambience of IITs campus is both inspiring and vibrating with perfectly planned and aligned layout for the whole campus, libraries, and hostels.
NITs are definitely second to IITs in terms of infrastructure. They also have great computing facilities.
Better Placements at IITs: Top Notch companies prefer IITians over NITians and also salaries offered are well differentiated. Going through last 5 years placement records of both, the average pay package offered to any IITian (B.Tech) is anywhere between Rs 43,750 and 48,000 monthly compared with average pay package offered to any student from NIT in (B.Tech) which is anywhere between Rs 40,000 and 42,000 monthly. However, there is a lot of variance among the salary packages depending on ability of candidates and academic performances.
CONCLUSION
The Indian Institutes of Technology remain a top brand, but their standing as centres of excellence can no longer be stated as convincingly with inclusion of new IITs. The brand has also taken a hit with the increase in the number of IITs. There is a definite distinction between the “new” and “old” IITs.
The demographic dividend and our target of achieving 30% enrolment in higher education till 2020 implies that we should not have just some IITs in order to cash in on IIT brand name. The lack of domestic competition has resulted in depreciation in the output of the IITs both in terms of research output and overall grooming of the students. The core industry demands have remained low which has resulted in engineering students from IIT & NIT ending up as investment bankers and management consultants. The big packages that IITians bag every year is just one side of the story.
The other side of the story is the IITs enjoy media publicity images for the proliferation of entrepreneurs out of IITs. Overall, brand IIT, though still on a high pedestal, is on the way downhill. We need to make NITs more strong in terns of faculty, infrastructure and placement so that NITs give IITs a run for the much applauded IIT BRAND.
CONCEPTREE had a talk with Shreya from BIT Mesra while Trinayan from NIT, Trichy. Let’s see what they have to say!
Placements
Shreya:
The old NITs like Trichy, Warangal, etc. no doubt offer better placement opportunities as compared to those offered in newly opened IITs like IIT Bhilai, Goa, Jammu, etc.
Trinayan:
Companies still prefer older NITs to newer IITs because of their brand image.
Campus
Shreya:
If you are looking for a good campus life then surely your choice should be the older NITs. Newer IITs either have borrowed someone else’s or they organise activities in different places
Trinayan:
Most new IITs don’t have their own campus and have the minimum infrastructure. In contrast, NIT Trichy has a well-developed campus of 800 acres which is comparable to most of the old IITs.
Brand Value
Shreya:
Ask any student in India, the tag ‘IIT’ has its own brand value which is much greater than the tag of ‘NIT’. But the recruiters’ views differ in this case. They treat the tags ‘new-IIT’ and ‘IIT’ differently. After all the exposure in older NITs matters a lot.
Trinayan:
Ask any recruiter in India, they will sure recognise the tags ‘new-IIT’ and ‘IIT’ differently. After all, you miss out on a lot of exposure in the newer ones. Ask anyone outside India, they know neither IITs nor NITs. The ones who know, always hold the older institute at a higher level.
Here’s what Shreya had to say about Branch Choice when choosing between old NITs and new IITs:
If you are highly interested in a specific branch then do not hesitate to choose it because one can concentrate only if one loves that stream and here it is about choosing your career option. But when it’s between a ‘good’ (by good I mean high cut-off) branch in a new IIT and a decent one in an old IIT, time and again the latter has proved to be a better choice.
What about alumni? Alumni networks serve as a strong support structure for students. What fares better then? Old NITs or new IITs? Here’s what Trinayan had to say:
This is something that requires years and years to develop. It is clear and understood that older NITs have a larger alumni base that has been developed since years. How can the new IITs even compare with the large and insurmountable alumni network built by older NITs?
Hope this gives all the answers you need. If still you have any queries read more on http://www.conceptreelearning.com/forum/
