A senior academician, speaking on condition of anonymity, has a similar view. “Many PhDs from IITs and IISc, who have joined the private sector, lament that they are not being paid the basic minimum wage and are looking for government college jobs in any part of the country. are. For example, a BTech or PhD from an old IIT can earn a salary of around Rs 50,000 even after a few years of postdoc experience. It is not that institutions are not making money and some of them have been identified as Institutions of Eminence (IoE), but despite their luxurious campuses, it does not seem that faculty salary is a gainful expenditure,” he said. it is said.
While many institutes recruit retired IIT academicians who are paid very well, it is not the same for the faculty who regularly teach in the classes. “These faculties may find it difficult to get government jobs which is a time-consuming process and may also have reservation issues. However, it is not as if all private institutions are poorly paid,” he emphasized. Souvik Bhattacharya, Vice Chancellor, BITS Pilani, confirms, “There are non-government universities where the salary of teachers is either equal to or even higher than that of IITs/ 7th Pay Commission. BITS Pilani is one such example where the pay is mapped to the same as the 7th Pay Commission/IIT pay scale. As a matter of fact, in IITs, the pay gets saturated at the end of the pay scale for Professor and Professor (HAG) cadre; In the case of BITS Pilani, they continue to receive annual increments and hence the salary exceeds the respective IIT gross pay for those levels.
“Though we do not get annual government grants from IITs/CFTIs, we do our best to ensure quality at every university function. We closely track Institutional Knowledge Analytics to assess our performance over time. We have a formal unit (Ikea cell) to oversee this process. Key performance indicators are monitored with the data leading to actionable insights to enhance performance.”
He says that pay discrepancies can exist everywhere, as there are some state government universities where salaries are relatively low due to low Dearness Allowance (DA) by the particular state government. “Today, the quality of an academic institution should not be assessed on the basis of its ownership (government/private). It goes without saying that a fair salary will attract better human resources; It is therefore essential that we pay our faculty members well, and benchmark it against the best in the country.”
Sriman Kumar Bhattacharya, Vice Chancellor, Shiv Nadar University Chennai says, “At HEI, young minds are groomed to produce quality manpower in various disciplines, and this massive undertaking can be accomplished only if the institutions have reasonable salaries. Have quality faculty members with Packages and career development opportunities. Keeping this in mind, we provide additional allowances/grant for R&D along with salary as per 7th Pay Commission guidelines to teachers.
While remuneration is an important factor for faculty members, it cannot be the only factor influencing the quality of education, says Jitu Mishra, chief administrative officer and senior director, HR, OP Jindal Global University (JGU). “JGU’s policies such as research grants, publication incentives facilitate faculty members to work on their intellectual development and institution-building.”
Today’s generation prefers AC classes instead of classes with broken desks and non-functional fans. “We provide world-class infrastructure without compromising on the quality of faculty members whose salaries are in line with the UGC recommendations,” says Mishra.