IIT Roorkee hostel timings same for both boys & girls: AK Chaturvedi

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, which is one of the seven oldest IITs in the country, carries an age-old legacy. The over 150 year-old institution that is known for its Civil Engineering branch has changed a lot over the years, but the core values remain the same.

Newly appointed Director AK Chaturvedi, after taking charge in December last year, changed hostel timings for girls, equating them with that of the boys’.

In an interaction with DNA, the Director talks about the initiatives he has taken in the Institute

What steps have you taken after you took over as the Director?

After I took over as the Director, hostel timings for boys and girls have been made the same. Earlier girls were not allowed to go out of hostel after 11 pm but now they can roam around within the campus till late night. There is a security team that watches out for any unruly elements on the campus, to make the girls feel safe. I have also made provisions for keeping the library open round-the-clock, during exam days.

IIT Roorkee students have been actively participating in the Save Ganga project, how much support do they receive from the management?

The management is extremely supportive of the students. Our students have a special attachment with the river, owing to our proximity with it, and hence they want to do more for it. They are trying to generate fund through crowd-sourcing for cleaning the river and the faculty is completely supportive of this.

The government has recently asked IITs to discontinue courses that are not receiving many takers, are there any courses in IIT Roorkee that will shut?

As far as our under-graduate courses are concerned there is no dearth of students applying for them but we may revisit some of post-graduate courses. However, I don’t think that there will be a many such courses, very few.

Does IIT Roorkee plan on hiring its own PhDs as faculty members to tackle the shortage of faculty in the institution?

We do not want to encourage inbreeding like this. If we keep elevating our own PhDs as faculty members there will be a dearth of fresh ideas. However we do want to encourage our BTech students doing masters and PhDs.

What does the Institute plans to do to take itself in the league of world class institutions?

We want to focus more on internationalisation of the institution by recruiting more international faculty and engaging in exchange programme with foreign institutions.