IITs to Rethink on Exit Option for Students
The IITs have come up with a plan to award B.Sc Engg degree to the students who are unable to cope with the four-year B.Tech course. This proposal came up in a recent meeting of the IIT councils.
The IITs in India earlier came up with a plan of awarding a 3-Year B.Sc Engineering degree for the students who are not being able to cope up with their B.Tech course in the premier institutes. This proposal was discussed in a recent meeting of the IITs council. However, the proposed idea of exit option may be dropped by the premier engineering institutes.
The IIT Council has finally left the decision on the individual IITs to chose if they want to award non-performing students with a B.Sc Engineering degree in 3 years of B.Tech course or not. An official statement from the IIT Council has said that the non-performing students, who are unable to cope up with the projected credit scores in their academics may be awarded a B.Sc Engineering degree. But the IIT Council is not making it a mandate. Individual IITs can decide if they want to implement the suggestions or not.
According to media sources, the discussion over the proposal was held on 20th September. The meeting was attended by the Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry which is the highest body of decision-making for all the 23 IITs in the Country.
The decision is expectedly being taken to reduce the drop-out rate of IITs as many students drop out from 4 years (8 Semester) B.Tech courses for not being able to cope with the fast-paced academics in the IITs. For such students, the IITs may now offer a B.Sc degree before 1 year from the completion of their B.Tech course. This way, the students will have a 3-years Bachelors degree and won't be labelled as dropouts.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) recently, a total of 2,461 students dropped out of IIT’s B.Tech and PG courses last year. For such students, the MHRD has proposed an exit option after 6 semesters only after they meet prescribed academic standards. The weak students can choose B.Sc Engineering after 2 semesters if they feel like they are not capable of catching up with IIT’s B.Tech courses.
The Council will also discuss a proposal to grant more power to the Board of Governors (BOF) of an IIT to pick its members and chairperson becoming free from the interference of the MHRD which currently appoints them.
The proposal for the financial autonomy of the IITs was also discussed at the meeting. IITs were advocating for autonomy like IIMs for a long time and IIT Delhi has given a letter to the MHRD as well asking for autonomy. If the proposals are met, it will be one of the greatest reforms made on the history of IITs.