Road to expansion clear, but 3rd-gen IITs are caught in loop of low enrolment & falling placements

The Print

5 hours ago

It was in 2015 that the government announced the establishment of six new IITs, in Palakkad, Bhilai, Jammu, Dharwad, Tirupati and Goa—with a plan for each to start with an 'initial intake of 180 students in the first year from temporary campuses, increasing to 450 in the second year and to 928 (including 840 undergraduates) in the third year'.
New Delhi: Five third-generation Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) established between 2015 and 2016 are falling short of their intake targets, recording fewer enrolments than available seats in masters and PhD programmes as well as declining placements, while some are also facing faculty vacancies, data reviewed by ThePrint shows.
According to the 2017 Cabinet-approved figures, shared by IIT Tirupati, by 2023–24, the total student strength at IIT Tirupati and IIT Palakkad was to be 2,550 (including 900 undergraduate students), while for the remaining IITs, it was to be 2,540 (including 1,170 undergraduate students) across all courses.
Data obtained by ThePrint under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and review of open source data, however, shows that many of these institutes are still falling short of meeting the projected figure. For instance, the current student strength of IIT Tirupati is about 1,700, which was projected to be achieved by the 2021-22 academic year.
Responding to ThePrint, K.N. Satyanarayana, director, IIT Tirupati, said, 'The Cabinet approval for construction of a permanent campus for 1,200 students was given only in November 2017 as part of Phase A. Due to the impact of the COVID years, there has been some delay in reaching the targets. The Cabinet has just approved the Phase B construction to be completed by 2029, to further accommodate 1,300 students (total of 2500). All the IITs will be able to meet this revised target.'
In case of IIT Dharwad, the projected strength for undergraduate students in 2023-24 was 1,170. However, it presently hosts 980 undergraduate students at its campus.
'The annual intake increase is based on various parameters, including the infrastructure. The institute is currently hosting over 980 undergraduate students on campus. We plan to expand further under Phase 1B of our construction project. Hence, progress of the institute is steady,' the institute said in a statement to ThePrint.
Similarly, at IIT Bhilai, the projected strength of undergraduate students for 2023–24 was 1,170. However, only 756 undergraduate students were enrolled with it in 2023-24, falling short of the 2017 projection, the data shows.
IIT Bhilai did not respond to queries by ThePrint, while IIT Palakkad refused to comment. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
In its response, IIT Jammu said the intake has been aligned with projections in the detailed project report. 'The institute has been scaling its intake progressively, in accordance with the approved plan, while taking into consideration the availability of infrastructure, faculty and other essential resources,' it said in a statement, even as it did not share its current strength of students.
Even as the five IITs are yet to meet their targets, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 7 May approved the expansion of their academic and infrastructure capacity. The initiative aims to enhance student intake by over 6,500 across undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes over the next four years.
Among the six new IITs, the government has not considered IIT Goa for expansion because it is yet to get a permanent campus. According to the initial plan, all six IITs were expected to start operating from a permanent campus in the fourth year of establishment itself.
But data obtained shows that third-generation IITs have faced several challenges over the years, including vacant seats in postgraduate and PhD programmes, consistent faculty vacancies, gap between number of patents filed and granted at some institutes, and falling placements.
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Postgraduate, PhD seats go vacant
Data accessed by ThePrint shows that almost all of these institutes had vacant seats in postgraduate and PhD courses every year. But undergraduate courses did not see large scale vacancies.
In the case of IIT Bhilai, of the 500 postgraduate seats available between 2017-18 and 2024-25, just 274 or 54.8 percent were filled. Similarly, only 315 of 510 PhD seats were filled at the institute between 2018-19 and 2024-25, leaving 38 percent seats vacant.
At IIT Palakkad, of 452 postgraduate seats available between 2019-20 and 2024-25, only 384 were filled, leaving 15 percent seats vacant. Additionally, of the 802 PhD seats offered between 2017-18 and 2024-25, only 579 were filled, resulting in 28 percent of seats remaining vacant.
In the case of IIT Tirupati, of 713 postgraduate seats available between 2018-19 and 2024-25, only 534 were filled, leaving 25 percent vacant. For PhD programmes, 413 of 542 seats offered between 2017-18 and 2024-25 were filled, with 24 percent remaining vacant.
Responding to these vacancies, the IIT Tirupati director said, 'There has been a drop in applicants for the MTech and PhD programmes in all the institutions across the country. This has impacted the selection of quality candidates for these programmes.'
The data further shows that IIT Dharwad started its postgraduate programme six years after becoming functional, in 2022, and between 2022-23 and 2024-25, only 102 of 152 seats were filled, leaving 33 percent vacant.
In its response to ThePrint, IIT Dharwad said the institute started the MTech programme from academic year 2022-23 because of various factors like availability of new faculty members and demand for the course among the student community.
'The reason for vacant seats at Master's level is common among all IITs (i.e. 1st Generation, 2nd Generation, 3rd Generation) and it is because of non-availability of deserving students in the reserved category. Many of the students leave their Master's degree course on getting a job on the basis of their UG degree certificates and/or GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) score,' the institute said.
In the case of IIT Jammu, vacancies persisted in undergraduate courses as well, with 13.6 percent of BTech seats remaining unfilled between 2016-17 and 2023-24.
IIT Jammu told ThePrint in its statement that no specific reason can be attributed for the vacant seats.
'The percentage of vacant seats varies from year to year; however, admissions are conducted through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority based on merit lists published for various categories. As far as IIT Jammu is concerned, the institute is well-equipped with all necessary infrastructure and advanced research laboratories featuring modern equipment,' it stated.
Faculty vacancies, patents
At some of the newer institutes, teaching vacancies persist—for instance, IIT Tirupati had 14.3 percent of faculty positions vacant in 2024-25, 10.8 percent in 2023-24, 17.5 percent in 2022-23, and 21.6 percent in 2021-22, data accessed by ThePrint shows.
IIT Tirupati director Satyanarayana said, 'Faculty recruitment is a continuous process. It is proposed to recruit another 25 faculty members in the current academic year, which will fill these vacant positions.'
Similarly, at IIT Jammu, 35 percent of teaching and non-teaching posts were vacant in 2020-21, 34.6 percent in 2021-22, 23.8 percent in 2022-23, and 30 percent in 2023–24.
The data also highlights a notable gap between the number of patents filed and those granted at several of these institutes. For example, between 2021-22 and 2024-25, IIT Jammu filed 38 patents, but none have been granted so far. Similarly, at IIT Palakkad, 55 patents were filed between 2019-20 and 2024-25, of which only 12 were granted. At IIT Dharwad, just 9 patents have been filed to date, with only 2 granted, RTI data shows.
Falling placements
Data shows a noticeable decline in placements over the years at the new IITs.
At IIT Palakkad, the placement rate dropped drastically in 2024-25 at 68.83 percent, compared to 74.15 percent in 2023-24 and 90.05 percent in 2022-23. However, the institute stated in its RTI response that placement process for the year 2024-25 is still on and data had been provided till 28 April, 2025.
In the case of IIT Tirupati, the BTech placement percentage was 63.47 percent in 2022–23, improved to 85 percent in 2023-24, but fell to 71.86 percent in 2024-25.
A parliamentary panel report in March also flagged an 'unusual decline' in placements across IITs, including these five institutes, between the academic years 2021-22 and 2023-24.
The panel's report showed that at IIT Jammu, placements declined from 92.08 percent in 2021-22 to 89.93 percent in 2022-23 and further to 70.25 percent in 2023-24. At IIT Dharwad, placements declined from 90.20 percent in 2021-22 to 65.83 percent in 2022-24 and 65.56 percent in 2023-24.
At Bhilai, the placements dropped from 89.92 percent in 2021-22 to 85.84 percent in 2022-23 and then to 72.22 percent in 2023-24.
In some cases, the average salary offered to students also declined. For instance, at IIT Bhilai, the average salary was Rs 14.12 lakh per annum in 2021-22, which declined to Rs 12.51 lakh per annum in 2023-24, the RTI data shows.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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