edinburgh scotland for the first time ever the indian institute of technology delhi has decided to adopt the style of ivy league universities to tap wealthy alumni for donations the institute which has consistently been indias top ranked entry in most of the recent world university rankings is in the process of recruiting its first development officer whose only mandate will be to liaise with the illustrious alumni for raising funds in an exclusive interview to times of india iit delhi director professor r k shevgaonkar said at present alumni donations to their alma mater is abysmally low professor shevgaonkar said at the opening of the edinburgh india institute that iit delhi is in the process of finalizing a vision document that will inform alumni exactly where they can help donate in the form of increasing teaching facilities housing quarters hostel accommodation and fund scholarships the revelation comes just a day after british universities announced that it had received a record number of donations from its wealthy alumni last year leading to a 23 increase in cash income for universities across uk universities in the uk were given a record amount in philanthropic donations last year 774 million in 201112 up 14 on the year before of this a total of 6598 million was given in cash donations in 201213 excluding pledges and gifts in kind the funds raised include donations pledges legacies and gifts in kind uk universities had just over 93 million contactable alumni in 201213 of them 174000 made a gift professor shevgaonkar told toi we at present have a dean of alumni and international relations whose job is to coordinate events however we are setting up a fund raising cell that will be manned by a special officer whose only job will be to tap wealthy alumni and inform them exactly where they can put in their money at present in its 52 year old history iit delhi has over 40000 alumni majority of whom have done very well for themselves iit delhi at present provides 1100 masters degrees 2oo phds and 700 b techs a year professor shevgaonkar added that tapping alumni can easily generate a few hundred crores a year he said at present we get about rs 200 crores from the government a year to run the institute we need double of that help from alumni will ensure we can provide many more scholarships and expand our infrastructure the vision document will tell them exactly where they can donate we can name parts of the institute set up with their money after the alumni themselves the development officer will be hired in the next few weeks professor shevgaonkar however lamented that if you look at colleges and universities in the us and uk they raise millions of dollars every year from donations from their alumni in india unfortunately the culture of philanthropy in education is almost nonexistent interestingly uk puts in a great deal of effort and invests a lot of