In a few years, at least 200 engineering colleges in the country are expected to have better faculty and research centres through the Union ministry of human resource development's Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), the second phase of which is to take off in April 2010.
A project information document (PID) prepared by the World Bank says TEQIP II, taken up at an estimated INR 2,350 crore. It says improving quality and learning outcomes would require tackling insufficient faculty qualifications and large faculty shortage. The government of India's estimate of the production of PhDs is just 1,000 a year for a student population of 1.7 million, compared to a PhD production of 9,000 in the US and 12,000 in China. The project is garnering a lot of interest in academic and industry circles because of what it has helped achieve in the first phase. In various technical institutes in Tamil Nadu, TEQIP I funded the procurement of sophisticated equipment, infrastructure development, academic reforms, and improved the interface between institutes through networking.
