IIT Madras Students can Now Pursue Courses from other IITs and Earn CreditsIIT Madras New Initiative: Students of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), including IIT Madras, are soon going to get a significant academic benefit as the IIT community is set to implement a cross-campus study program that will enable students to attend classes at other IIT campuses and earn academic credits, which can then be transferred to their respective home institutes.
This academic program, which has been proposed at the IIT Council level, is expected to develop a flexible and integrated academic network for all 23 IIT campuses in the country. According to this program, undergraduate students will be able to attend specific courses at other IIT campuses or even spend a semester at a different institute other than their parent institute.
Flexible Learning Across IIT Campuses
The proposed system is centred on academic flexibility and interdisciplinary learning. Conventionally, IIT students were constrained to courses available only at their allotted IIT campus as per the JEE admission process. With the proposed system, students can now access specialised electives, research-based courses, or new technologies offered at other IITs.
Credits from such flexible learning across IIT campuses will be recognised and transferred to the student’s record, just like semester exchange programs adopted by international universities.
It has been revealed that about 5% of the undergraduate students will be participating in inter-IIT exchanges in the initial phase, ensuring a seamless start without impacting infrastructure and academic harmony.
How the Programme Will Benefit Students
The cross-campus study programme is expected to:
- Enable students to tap into specialised courses that are not offered at the home IIT
- Foster inter-disciplinary learning and innovation
- Strengthen research exposure and collaboration across campuses
- Improve job prospects with diverse academic profiles
- Enable flexibility akin to global university exchange programmes
Academic administrators are of the view that this will help shift the IIT ecosystem into a single national academic system, where students can choose to design their own learning trajectories instead of being constrained by institute choice at the time of admission.
Implementation Status
The programme is at the final stage of policy formulation, with curriculum synchronisation underway to ensure seamless transfer of credits between IITs. After the policy is approved at the institute level, students can start availing themselves of inter-campus learning opportunities from the next academic session.
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