New Delhi — If a high-level Indian government committee has its way, the country’s internationally renowned engineering schools, the Indian Institutes of Technology, will soon produce doctors, historians, and economists as well, The Times of India reported today.

Citing American universities as models, the government committee wants the engineering schools to offer a broad range of degrees. How they would do that amid faculty shortages of up to 30 percent — and plans to create six new institutes this year — remains to be seen.

Yash Pal, chairman of the committee, believes the institutes can handle further expansion. “All great universities around the world offer a range of undergraduate courses. Our IIT’s can’t be great unless they think in that direction,” he told the newspaper.

Some leaders of the elite institutes believe that expanding their degree offerings will put too much of a burden on them.

“There is a lot of expectation from the IIT’s,” S.C. Saxena, director of the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, told the newspaper. “But we must move in a planned and regulated manner.” —Shailaja Neelakantan