IITs to Launch Fine Arts Courses; Humanities Credits Compulsory

Apart from science and technology programmes, IITs are now focusing on arts, humanities and creative courses that can help in the all-round development of their students. Some of the Indian Institutes of Technology have started offering full-time arts, humanities and law courses while others are pushing compulsory humanities credits in the curriculum in order to engage students creatively in the development sector.

Professors of IITs believe that a holistic education is essential in order to encourage appreciation for creative arts. The premier technical institutes also believe that they need to expand their horizons while keeping their focus on STEM courses. The institutes are aiming to make engineers more receptive towards the society. Check out the art, humanities and law courses offered by IITs.

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Fine Arts Courses at IITs:

• IIT Kharagpur is the only IIT that offers law courses to aspirants. Apart from that, the institute is all set for rolling out a centre for music and art for all of its students and research scholars. This centre will primarily focus on Indian classical music and musical instruments.
• IIT BHU has formed a Humanistic Studies department and is redesigning all the courses through the guidance of its professors for developing a diversified curriculum for students.
• IIT Hyderabad students are required to take 1 credit course in creative arts each semester. The credit can be either one from Carnatic music, theatre, western classical music, cinema, ceramics, pottery, madhubani painting and others, etc.
• IIT Madras offers five-year integrated MA programmes in economics, English as well as development studies. These courses also allow the students to pick the subjects of their preference after completing the first two years of the programme.
• IIT Bombayand IIT Delhi offers design courses for enthusiasts who seek a career in the creative or technical domain of the design industry.

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The IITs plan to inspire teamwork and help engineers develop empathy for areas other than technology. In the past few years, students have shown a keen interest in social development and social initiatives. This is one of the reasons that these top engineering institutes have started offering courses in fields other than STEM.