Indian Institutes of Technology and IISc are unlikely to break into the list of world’s top 50 universities unless they run full-fledged medical colleges, IIT Madras director Professor V Kamakoti has said, revealing that the institution is considering setting up a medical college to overcome this gap in its portfolio.
In an exclusive interaction with TOI, Kamakoti said IIT-M has already begun internal discussions on establishing a medical college, which would be integrated with its engineering and science departments, as part of its long-term vision, and is looking for a large hospital.
Further, the institution has planned a global outreach through its proposed research centres in Dubai, Malaysia, and Germany and a sustainability campus in Puducherry, another important parameter for global rankings that Indian institutions lag on. In what’s an unconventional move, IIT-M has also formalised a platform to help its students prepare for civil services exams. “If you really want to come into the top 50 (in global rankings), you must have a medical school,” Kamakoti stressed, adding, “The top-ranked universities all have global campuses, deep-research collaborations, and, critically, medical schools”.
