In general almost IIT graduates and postgraduates get jobs before they graduate.
What do IIT graduates do after they graduate? An analysis of IIT alumni during 1973-77 and in the 1980’s [14] revealed that the brain drain was about 21% (Alumni who settled down permanently in US normally after doing higher studies in the US). The percentage of engineering graduates opting for higher study in US (immediately after graduation) was around 30-40% in the 1980s and early 90s. This trend seems to have changed. At present the percentage of graduates who opt for higher studies is about 16%. Table 2.3 provides the data on students opting for higher studies from different departments. It is seen that for different departments the percentage of B.Tech students opting for higher studies ranged from 3.7% (Aerospace) to 32.4% (computer science) and 44.4% (Engineering Physics). The corresponding percentage for Dual Degree is lower with an average of 8.7%.
Table 2.3: Department-wise details of number of students pursuing MS/MS+PhD/PhD (Batch passing out in 2007) [21]
We analysed the data from the campus placement records for 2006. A total of 159 compa-nies visited IIT Bombay for campus placement. These compacompa-nies were classified into engineering, software, finance, consulting and others (service sector etc.) as shown in Table 2.4
Table 2.4: Break-up of Job offers for 2006-7[21]
Category Number of
Companies Offers % Offers
Engineering 75 367 46
Software 30 113 14
Consulting 21 131 16
Finance 25 167 21
Others 8 26 3
Total 159 804 100
The sector wise placement is shown in Table 2.5. The largest sector is engineering jobs accounting for about half (367 offers or 46%) of the total offers. The finance sector accounts for the second largest category of jobs (167 or 21%). About a decade earlier, software jobs predominated. However at present the software industry accounts for only 14% of the total job offers. Table 2.6 shows the average salaries offered by the different sectors in 2005-06. It is clear that job offers in finance offer the highest salaries (average of Rs 7.2 lakhs per year). This is 34% higher than the average engineering salary, which is Rs 5.4 lakhs per year. On an average the Dual Degree (B.Tech and M.Tech) students have the highest salaries with an average of Rs 5.9 lakhs (15% more than the average B.Tech salary Department B.Tech
of Rs 5.1 lakhs). The average M. Tech salary (Rs 4.2 lakh) is lower than the average B.Tech salary.
The PhD numbers are misleading since only five PhD students were placed through campus placement in 2006. We obtained data for a sample of 31 engineering PhD students graduating in 2007. In 2007, 19 job offers were made through campus placements to graduating PhDs. Of this, 15 offers were to students with engineering background. The annual salaries ranged from Rs 4 lakhs to 18 lakhs. The average salary for this sample (of 31 PhDs) was about Rs 7 lakhs. This is about 37% higher than the average B.Tech salary.
The placement statistics for the last five years is given in Table 2.7. Table 2.8 shows the ratio of average starting salary of graduates to Masters and Doctorates for MIT USA and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign USA for 2005. The average Masters salary is 22-26% higher than the Bachelor’s salary and the Doctorates salaries is 45-58% higher than the Bachelor’s salary.
Table 2.5: Sector wise percentage placement [21]
Programme Engineering % Finance % Consulting % Software % Others Total
B.Tech. 88 35 56 23 45 18 45 18 14 248
D D 65 50 27 21 19 15 14 11 4 129
M.Tech. 164 57 11 4 13 5 78 27 21 287
Table 2.6: Programme and Sector wise Average Salaries for 2005-2006 [21]
Average
salary Programme Engineering Finance Consulting Software Others
513000 B.Tech. 550000 661000 449000 509000 395000
591000 Dual Degree 614000 906000 515000 501000 421000
418000 M.Tech. 529000 521000 334000 387000 320000
458000 Ph.D. 517000 400000
517000 Average salary 539000 722000 424000 416000 351000
Table 2.7: Programme wise Placement at IIT Bombay for last Five Years [21]
Year Program B.Tech. M.Tech. Dual Degree.
Registered 275 335 131
Placed 171 186 102
2002-03
% Placement 62 56 78
Registered 258 282 144
Placed 202 197 122
2003-04
% Placement 78 70 85
Registered 249 388 134
Placed 218 307 131
2004-05
% Placement 88 79 98
Registered 265 330 149
Placed 239 291 131
2005-06
% Placement 90 88 88
Registered 314 374 166
Placed 263 321 144
2006-07
% Placement 84 86 87
Table 2.8: Average starting salaries for a few US universities [23]
Institute Salaries Bachelors Masters Doctoral
Average Salary $59391 $74885 $86183
MIT
USA Ratio to Bachelors Salary 1.00 1.26 1.45 Average Salary $53,600 $65,300 $84,500 UIUC
USA Ratio to Bachelors Salary 1 1.22 1.58
In general, IIT graduates do not opt for M.Tech or PhD at IIT (barring a few exceptions).
Though we have no exact data on this, we expect that only about 1% of the graduating B.Tech class opt for an M.Tech.
We have analysed the background of the 226 PhD students who were admitted to the PhD programme in the academic year 2006-2007. Of this 138 students (61%) were in engineer-ing. Among the engineering PhDs, 29 (21%) had M.Techs from IIT Bombay, 16 (12%) from other IITs and IISc. About 33% of the engineering PhD students admitted were from the IITs/IISc. If we consider the total number of students (including Science, Management and Humanities) 61 students were from IITs (37%) of the total. Of the engineering PhD students admitted in 2006-7, 14 were M.Techs who graduated in 2006.
This implies that about 2% of the graduating M.Tech students opt to continue directly for a PhD.
2.1.3 Faculty
IIT Bombay currently has faculty strength of 418 (192 Professors, 106 Associate Profes-sors, 96 Assistant Professors). Figure 2.7 shows the trend in the number of faculty. It is clear that the faculty numbers have gradually increased from less than 300 in the mid 70’s to 418 at present (2007). There is some fluctuation due to a large number of retirements during some years. The growth rate from 1958 to 2006 has been at 4.7% per year. During the last ten years (1986 to 1998), the Institute has been recruiting faculty but has only been able to offset the reductions due to retirements. There has been only a slight increase in faculty during this period (from 389 in 1996 to 402 in 2006 corresponding to a CAGR of 0.3% per year).
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
1958 1961 1964 1967 1970 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006
Year
Faculty
Figure 2.7: Number of Faculty 1974-2006 [21]
The student- faculty ratio for IIT Bombay is shown in figure 2.8. The student strength has grown at a faster rate than the faculty strength resulting in increase in the student-faculty ratio. The approved student-faculty ratio for IITs/ IIMs is 9:1 [24]. The present value for IIT Bombay of this ratio is 12.4:1. In order to maintain a ratio of 9:1 IIT Bombay’s present faculty strength should have been 555. Of course, it is possible to have ratios higher than 9:1.
0
Student-Faculty Ratio S/F for Total
S/F for UG
Figure 2.8: Student-Faculty ratios 1991-2006 [21]
Figure 2.9 shows a comparison of undergraduate student-faculty ratios at some of the reputed engineering colleges in the USA [25]. The average of the top 50 US colleges of Engineering is 12.8 and the US publicly funded colleges is higher (15.8). The actual ratios of the total student faculty will be higher since they include MS and PhD students.
Figure 2.9: Undergraduate Student-Faculty ratios for USA [25]
Even if slightly higher ratios are acceptable, it is clear that a major constraint to the growth of the IITs is the difficulty in increasing the faculty base. The faculty salaries at present are given in Table 2.9. The annual salary at the starting scale for an Assistant Professor is Rs 2.95 lakhs per year (without the house rent allowance). All faculty are provided accommo-dation in the campus, low cost school education for children, medical facilities and perks like leave travel allowance, telephone re-imbursement etc. If these are monetised and added to the salary, an approximate amount of Rs 2.4 lakhs gets added to the starting salary (80%
of the gross salary). This factor has been included to compute the effective salary. This is a conservative estimate, as we have not included pension and post-retirement benefits. The average salary for Professors is Rs 9 lakhs while the average Assistant Professor salary is Rs 6.7 lakhs. The ratio of these salaries is 1.34. Table 2.10 shows the comparable ratios for selected US universities. This ratio ranges from 1.65 to 2.63. It is clear that the expected percentage salary increases over the career of an IIT faculty are much lower than the US counterparts.
We compare the ratio of the average assistant professor salary at an institution to the average salary of the bachelors engineering graduate starting salary. For MIT, USA this ratio is 1.43 (Average Assistant Professor salary of $85000 is 43% higher than average engineering degree starting salary of $59000). The ratio for IIT Bombay is 1.21 (Average Assistant Professor salary of Rs 6.7 lakhs is 21% higher than average engineering degree starting salary of Rs 5.5 lakhs).
Table 2.9: Faculty Salaries for 2006-2007 for IIT Bombay [21]
Annual Designation Monthly
Basic Without HRA With HRA Effective Salary Starting 12000 295200 360000 531000 Assistant Professor
Highest 18300 448296 547116 807000 Starting 16400 402120 490680 724000 Associate Professor
Highest 20000 489600 597600 881000 Starting 18400 450720 550080 811000 Professor
Highest 22400 547920 668880 986000 Figure 2.10 shows the background of the existing faculty at IIT Bombay, based on the place of the Ph.D. Around 60% of the faculty have PhDs from, Indian institutions (45%
form the IITs and IISc). 28% of the faculty have PhDs from the US.
Table 2.10: Ratio of Professor to Assistant Professor Salary for US Universities in 2005-06 [26]
Figure 2.10: Distribution of Faculty according to place of Ph D