Managing Faculty Demand in Technical Education:A Supply Chain Model for IITs

Providing education to the masses is extremely important for any nation as it has a direct effect on the development of the country. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the demand supply gap with respect to faculty requirement with particular reference to the IITs. The government’s proposal to set up eight additional premier institutes for technical education (IITs) in India will widen the demand supply gap for faculty among these institutes. The paper tries to understand the education system as a supply chain concept. It then attempts to determine the year by year demand for faculty required to cater to the proposed eight Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country. It is found that a huge gap exists between the supply and demand for faculty. It forecasts an additional requirement of about 2800 faculty in the IITs during the period 2009-14. The paper makes specific recommendations to reduce the gap. The concepts of collaboration and outsourcing can be applied. The generation of faculty can be enhanced by increasing enrolments for doctoral program and having stringent quality control in the programs. Also, compensation for faculty can be enhanced to attract more people to the field. The forecast as well as recommendations can be of immense value to policy makers as well as the IITs in order to plan for expanding technical education in the country.