Studying in an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) is a dream of almost all the students who want to pursue engineering. However, only a few of them can make it each year owing to the limited seats and tough competition.
The Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IIT-GN) has been providing students with the non-degree programme since a decade with the purpose of hosting non-IITian students on its campus and giving them a taste of the culture of IIT. This non-degree programme is open for the students of Sociology, Engineering, Developmental Studies etc at various levels.
Through this programme, students can pursue full-time or part-time courses and spend a whole semester at the campus of IIT Gandhinagar for credit or for conducting research, undertaking projects with the faculty of IIT GN and participating in the internships offered at the institute.
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The Director of IIT Gandhinagar, Sudhir K Jain, spoke on this initiative and said that its main objective is to give an opportunity to deserving students by introducing them to the systems of an IIT. It is not possible for all students to get to live the lifestyle that an IIT offers due to the cut-throat competitions in all entrance exams. Therefore, for this programme, there is no restriction for the students and those who have not qualified the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) or Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineers (GATE) can also learn the culture of an IIT.
As per Sudhir Jain, this will help in changing the complete notion of IITs being ‘exclusive’ and lead them towards ‘inclusivity and transparency’. He added that this programme is far better than online programmes in which there is no direct interaction happening between the students and faculty. Moreover, this programme lets students learn without causing any harm to their regular degree as they are given some credit by their colleges for pursuing the course at IIT Gandhinagar.
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Students make the payment of an entire semester's fee and attend regular classes at IIT-GN. A certificate of completion is given to them at the end of the semester. The admissions for both Semester 1 (from August to November) and Semester 2 (from January to April) are open for all courses.