Sorting and shaping, explorations in helplessness of higher education institutions

Abstract

After independence, the Education Commission called for creation of new institutions to undertake the task of higher education in technology, agriculture and management. Three models of higher education were imported. In the field of technology, the 'MIT model' was advocated by the Sarkar Committee. The five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were the results of this thinking. The 'Land-grant University Model' provided the basis for development of agricultural univ nagement (IIMs) at Ahmedabad and Calcutta. In this paper, we explore the implications of importing the 'MIT model' in the case of IITs and venture some possible explanations of the feelings of institutional helplessness through indepth data collected in one IIT.