India, Nov. 6 -- Faculty recruited under India's reservation policies have, on average, lower academic qualifications, less experience, and fewer senior positions than their general-category counterparts, but this does not translate into poorer teaching or research performance, according to a new study on faculty at engineering colleges, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

The study examined whether faculty recruited under caste-based reservation policies differ from general-category faculty in teaching, research, and other academic responsibilities. It found that students taught by reservation-category faculty performed marginally better in their immediate course examinations, scoring an average of 1.44 percentile poin...