Yes, there is a provision of teaching/research assistantships in the Project for inculcation of teaching/ research culture in students envisaging them as a future stock of teachers/researchers. Details of teaching/research assistantships are as follow.
GATE qualified students shall receive an assistantship as per AICTE norms. The non-GATE qualified students will receive teaching/research assistantships on selection basis. The candidates selected for teaching/research assistantships will be required to devote 8-10 hours per week in classroom teaching and/or laboratory assignments. The institutions may plan to utilize 8-10% of the total institutional Project outlay on giving assistantship to masters and doctoral students.
The Project shall fund the institutions a total of 50 masters teaching assistantships to non-GATE qualified students and 30 research assistantships (for PhD) in the Project duration (in addition to the assistantships already available to the GATE qualified students and QIP assistantships) as per the prevalent Govt norms. Institutions should plan to utilize 10-15% of the total institutional Project outlay for giving assistantships to masters and doctoral students. Those candidates receiving assistantship will be required to devote 8-10 hours per week for teaching or research.
Starting of new AICTE approved PG programmes in emerging areas of engineering & technology will be supported in the Project, provided a) these programmmes are started latest by August 2011, b) more than 50% of the seats are occupied, and c) sufficiency of the required faculty is maintained throughout Project life.
To ensure equal opportunities for academically weak students in the Project institutions, a commitment shall be taken from the States and institutions that the reservation of seats for students as per the GoI policy framework is mandatory. It is mandatory for institutions for arranging additional academic support to academically weak students and SC/ST/OBC students to improve their academic performance. Institutions shall plan and implement an Equity Action Plan (EAP) through innovative methods such as remedial coaching classes, skill development classes, improving communication & presentation skills and special skills training. To achieve the objective of improving employability of weak students institutions are required to increase the transition rate to 45% in the first year of Project implementation and further enhancement in subsequent years. Project institutions selected under sub-component-1.1 shall spend a minimum of 4% of the institutional allocation, and institutions selected under sub-component-1.2 shall spend a minimum of 2% for providing academic support to weak students. More details about the Equity Action Plan (EAP) are provided in the Section-IX of PIP.