Changing Ethos and Practices of Academia: Case of IIT Kanpur

The following is a report on some of the changes in academic practice and its consequences on academic freedom in the IITs presented by Rahul Varman at a public meeting, “Report Card on Academic Freedom” organised by IAFN on 06 April 2024 at Jawahar Bhawan.

I will restrict this presentation to how everyday practice of academics has changed over years on campus and its consequences. And here I will dwell on three specific developments which have significant bearing on formal and informal academic practices within the Institute. These can be broadly categorised under––Financialisation, Corporatisation and Digital-Surveillance Complex.

Financialisation

The IITs have always been accorded a disproportionately large share of the total budget allocated for higher education in the country. And yet the government has systematically been withdrawing funding from public institutions and pushing for private financing. One of its important expressions is the institution of Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA).

HEFA Loans

HEFA was established in 2017 as a joint venture of Canara Bank and the Ministry of Education to leverage funds from market to finance infrastructure, maintenance of facilities, etc. of “top institutions”. The condition of the loan is that though the interest would be borne by the government, the principal amount has to be paid by the institution’s internal revenues (1). IIT Kanpur, like several other institutes and universities, has taken loans worth hundreds of crores. In 2017 itself it had borrowed Rs 391 crores (now apparently the figure is more than 500 crores) with an annual repayment of Rs 39 crores over 10 years (2). The primary avenue for internal fund generation is students’ fees. Thus, the decisions taken by the authorities today mortgage the students and the Institute for the future.

Massive Students’ Fees Hike/ Loans Combined with Coaching Expenses

Given the extremely skewed ratio of the number of aspirants to the seats available, the journey to secure a seat in these coveted institutions is extremely cost intensive. After spending lakhs over years on coaching barely 1 per cent of the over 9 lakh aspirants (3) manage to secure a seat. Over the last few years there has been a massive increase in fees for various degree courses across disciplines in the IITs. At present the B Tech fees for the four-year course is around Rs 9 lakh. The Institute has had to raise the fees due to some of its commitments like the HEFA loans. This also means that many students would have to take hefty loans to be able to afford education in IITs. This financial burden constrains and influences all their decisions and thinking in these formative years.

Finance Jobs the Most Coveted, Students Fully Focused on ‘Career’––Not Academics

It is a well-known phenomenon in these campuses that irrespective of the discipline of engineering one is enrolled in, every student learns coding and finance (some of it online) and aspires for a high paying job in the latter field. College has conventionally been the space where young people explore life, discover interests, and question various aspects of life, forming ideas and opinions through interaction, exposure and experiences of diverse varieties to become a responsible adult. But given the high-pressure context of massive fees and loans, and uncertainty of employment, most students are forced to focus on getting the highest paying jobs to be able to repay loans and more. The cutthroat competition hardly leaves any space or freedom to enjoy academics.

Corporatisation

IIT Kanpur has always had an alignment with the interests of big business and yet given its public funding status it provided ample space for research on critical issues which may not garner interests of private funders. But in recent times there has been a serious shift towards soliciting high-end project funding which has serious implications for academic practices within the Institute. Briefly they are as follows:

Project Funding: There is a massive push by the present regime and big business to work on pet projects in areas like military, semiconductor, 5G, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, cyber security, bioengineering, sustainability, etc.
Academics as Managers: Given these large projects, usually employing an army of research students and research staff, and dealing with big funds with little or no oversight, the most ‘successful’ faculty members behave more like managers rather than academics. They also garner immense power within the campuses.
Patents and Start-ups: With the entire focus on projects and spawning new companies and patents, there has been a significant shift in the nature of academic activities. Teaching has taken a backseat in the prevalent scheme of things.
Publish or Perish: Funding is based on rankings of the Institute which in turn is based on the number of publications which are churned out. New faculty members are warned of the perils of not adhering to the norms of publication irrespective of the discipline to which they belong. Hence most of the emphasis is on taking a large number of PhD students, funding and producing papers in high numbers, regardless of their quality. This leaves the faculty members with little time and inclination for teaching, let alone any other activities which involve critical engagement. It also leaves the PhD students with fewer academic spaces apart from their labs, projects and supervisors.
New Hierarchies among Faculty and Students: For decades the Institute had parity of pay and privileges across faculty members and graduate students. Individual contributions were acknowledged and encouraged but not with monetary incentives. In the new dispensation there is an emergent hierarchy being established that ranks departments and disciplines based on their marketability. This hierarchisation of course spills over to individual faculty members too, where they are ranked depending on their ability to garner funds and projects, and command respect and authority over a large number of students and research associates. While the government has been withdrawing scholarships awarded to various constituencies of students, they are creating hierarchies by implementing differential fellowships like the Prime Minister's Research Fellows (PMRF).
New Market-oriented Departments and Centres: While conventional and important departments are getting diluted or receiving less attention than they deserve, new market-oriented courses, departments and centres are being instituted to keep the funders happy. Thus, from an independent public-funded Institute, IIT Kanpur seems to have rapidly converted into a corporatised entity wherein the funders appear to have significant control on most crucial issues, including the research agenda.

Digital-Surveillance Complex

There was a systemic push for digitalisation of education from before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the pandemic and NEP 2020 took it to another level. For instance, “online” is mentioned 50 times while “digital” finds 38 mentions in the 60 odd pages of the final NEP 2020 document, and there are two entire chapters related to these issues in it. The institute has been swamped by all sorts of “online” classes, credits, new degrees like e-Masters, and even critical activities like senate meetings, faculty selections and PhD defences are taking place virtually. This is the new normal and there is sufficient monetary and academic incentivisation at every level to push for more “online”. Any critique is countered with “We are following NEP 2020”. With the onlinisation of formal academic processes in the campus, control over any marginal or dissenting voice becomes so much easier. Furthermore, control of the labour process of both students and teachers is facilitated by all round digitalisation. Digitalisation is not merely restricted to onlinisation but also includes setting up of CCTV cameras everywhere covering all aspects of campus life ––from class rooms, corridors, hostels to public roads and spaces. Every member of the community can be surveilled resulting in self-censoring and submission to norms. Significantly, over the years every protest––by workers or students––has been followed by the installation of more cameras.

Conclusion

IITs were always part of the establishment by design and were supposed to be alienated from the larger socio-political context, whilst enjoying a liberal atmosphere with democratic spaces for dissident voices and public activities. These spaces have almost been erased in recent times as the agenda guiding aforementioned changes has been taken over by forces mentioned above in spite of all the public resources allotted to these institutions. This change is exemplified by the response of the authorities (both within and outside the institution) to a peaceful event of solidarity organised on the 17th of December, 2019, by the students of IIT Kanpur protesting the police brutality against the students of Jamia Millia. The authorities took serious exception to the protest because the students dared to recite the immortal lines of Faiz’s ‘Hum dekhenge’ (4).

Rahul Varman is Professor, Department of Management Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.