New Delhi: The renowned Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) may soon have doctors, historians and policy makers at its campus just like several universities in the United States.

A Committee, headed by educationist Yash Pal, Chairman of the XIth Five-Year Plan Committee met the heads of all the IITs on Friday, to discuss how the premier tech schools can upgrade their character and enlarge their scope like the American universities.

The meeting focused on how the IITs can offer more than just programmes in science and technology - like medicine, developmental studies, history, psychology, policy development and more.

"Currently, the IITs are premier undergraduate engineering schools doing some postgraduation and research work. Now, we want to give them a bigger role", Yash Pal said.

The IITs would be given more freedom to start courses of their choice. It is difficult to, however, predict whether the new subjects offered will compare in excellence with the engineering departments, or be relegated to the sidelines, like the IITs' management schools.

"A range of undergraduate courses are offered by all noted universities across the world. Our IITs can't be great unless they think in that direction. If MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) or Caltech (California Institute of Technology) can offer a wider range of programmes that are well-known, why not the IITs? Our IITs have produced wonderful engineers for the country. It's time they looked at offering more," added Yash Pal.

But for some IIT directors, this move has come at a time when there is more on their plate than what they can handle. Yet, they are open to starting more programmes.

Gautam Barua, Director, IIT Guwahati said, "There has been some suggestion that the IITs start programmes in areas other than science and technology. I do not have a problem with doing that if our focus is clearly defined.'"

On the other hand, IIT Roorkee director S.C. Saxena said that the 54 percent expansion to accommodate OBC students and mentoring new IITs meant that they already had more than what they could handle.

"We need to move in a planned and regulated manner because there is a lot of expectation from the IITs", added S C Saxena

Educationist and former director of IIT Madras, P.V. Indiresan said the institutes had been synonymous with excellence and they must not start any programmes unless they have acquired very good faculty for the same.