What is the plan formulated by the Ministry of Human Resources Development to reduce the dropout rates in IITs?

The Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs), India’s premier Engineering Institutions are mulling over an early exit option for academically weak students in undergraduate courses. Those students will be allowed to opt-out after three years with a B.Sc. degree in engineering instead of the full four-year course.

Drop-out rates in IITs

The following data was placed before the Parliament by the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development:

• About 2,461 students have dropped out of different IITs in the last two years across B.Tech and post-graduate programmes.
• These include cases of expulsion on account of weak academic performance. For instance, IIT-Kanpur expelled 18 students on the grounds of poor grades, of which half were B.Tech students in the current year.

Proposal before the governing Council

• At present students who have enrolled in undergraduate programmes in IITs are awarded a B.Tech degree after completing eight semesters or four years. Those students with weak grades drop out midway.
• To address the dropouts the Ministry of Human Resource Development has proposed an exit option after six semesters.
• The Ministry has proposed to the IIT council to allow academically weak students to opt for B.Sc. (Engineering) after the second semester and leave after three years, provided they have met the minimum academic standards.

If the proposal is approved the IITs will be implementing the 3-year B.Sc. degree in engineering from the current academic year.