Over 3,500 IIT faculty posts filled since 2022, but 1:10 ratio remains unclear

The government has reported that more than 3,500 faculty positions have been filled across India's 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) between September 2022 and May 2026 as part of a drive to address staff shortages.

The recruitment was carried out under a “mission mode” initiative launched to strengthen faculty numbers across the premier engineering institutes.

However, the latest Lok Sabha response does not provide the current faculty-student ratio for individual IITs or a five-year comparison of sanctioned, filled and vacant positions.

This leaves open the question of whether individual IITs have reached the prescribed faculty-student ratio of 1:10.

The information was provided by the Ministry of Education in response to questions from Congress MP Sashi Tharoor on faculty strength across the IIT system.

Tharoor sought details on the prescribed and actual faculty-student ratios, permanent and visiting faculty numbers, and sanctioned, filled and vacant posts over the past five years.

He also sought details on steps being taken to encourage IIT alumni with doctoral qualifications to join the institutes as permanent faculty. Questions were also raised about the possibility of regularizing long-serving visiting and ad-hoc teachers.

The Ministry of Education said faculty recruitment at IITs is a “continuous process." It said vacancies arise due to retirements and resignations, while additional positions are created as student enrollment increases and new academic programs are introduced.

IITs conduct rolling recruitment drives throughout the year to fill faculty positions, according to the ministry.

Around 460 visiting faculty members are currently engaged in teaching and academic activities across the 23 IITs.

Institutes also appoint guest, adjunct and visiting faculty, along with Professors of Practice, to supplement their teaching workforce and bring professional and industry experience into academic settings.

The IIT Council has discussed several measures to strengthen faculty recruitment, including rolling and special hiring drives, recruiting eligible foreign faculty and Overseas Citizens of India, institutional performance reviews and regular monitoring of recruitment.

Faculty shortages have remained a longstanding concern across the IIT system. A parliamentary response in August 2022 recorded 4,596 vacant teaching positions across the 23 IITs, providing the backdrop for the subsequent mission mode recruitment campaign.

An earlier Lok Sabha response in August 2025 said faculty posts at IITs were sanctioned based on a 1:10 faculty-to-student ratio, subject to periodic review according to the requirements of individual institutes.

The latest govt response, however, does not show whether the 1:10 benchmark is currently being met at each IIT.

The method used to calculate the faculty-student ratio has also been debated over the years. In 2016, the IIT Council approved a proposal to count five PhD scholars as equivalent to one faculty member for the purpose of calculating the ratio, recognizing that doctoral scholars also contribute to undergraduate teaching.

At that time, IITs had around 26,000 PhD scholars, potentially adding nearly 5,000 faculty-equivalent positions to the calculation.

The recruitment of more than 3,500 faculty members indicates progress in addressing vacancies, but institute-wise data on current faculty and student numbers is still needed to determine whether individual IITs are meeting the prescribed staffing benchmark.