IIT Kanpur Introduces Economic Sciences Department
- IIT Kanpur has started a Department of Economic Sciences from May 6, 2017.
- Admission will be done on the basis of JEE Advanced 2017.
- 4-year BS and 5-year BS-MS dual degree programme in Economics will be offered.
A first for IITs – Economic Sciences department was been started by IIT Kanpur on Saturday, May 6, 2017. The institute has declared that students aspiring to pursue Bachelor of Science (BS) in Economic Sciences can now take admission at IIT Kanpur on the basis of JEE Advanced 2017.
Prof Indranil Manna, Director of IIT Kanpur, said that the institute had also started a Department of Earth Sciences in 2016. He also mentioned that the institute has been providing the Economic Science programme from the past few years but there was no separate department for the field.
IIT Kanpur is the first IIT to start an Economic Science Department. In 2005, an integrated M.Sc. programme was launched in the same field and students were selected for this programme on the basis of JEE. Later the institute introduced 4-year BS and 5-year BS-MS dual degree programme in Economics.
With the rising demand for this programme and brilliant placement offers, the institute decided to start a separate department dedicated to Economic studies. The recommendation to start a department were made by experts from IIM Indore, Stanford University, TIFR and other reputed institutes.
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The Department of Economic Studies is now formally operational as the Board of Governors has approved the procedure and recommendations made by the institute.
Prof Manindra Agarwal, Deputy Director of IIT-Kanpur, said that they will soon be recruiting professors for the new department to maintain a balanced student-faculty ratio. He also informed that a separate building has not been established for the department yet.
The development for the same will be done soon. Currently, the department is functioning from the premises of the Department of Humanities.
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Prof Joydeep Dutta, Head of the Economic Sciences Department informed that there will be 13 faculty members in the department and the two original economic science programmes will be managed by the department. He also added that the institute is planning to start a 2-year Masters programme in Economic Sciences.