Exit option for IIT students: Experts welcome move but want stigma addressed – The News Minute

The MHRD minister recently told in Lok Sabha that it has been deliberated to provide exit options to undergrad students pursuing engineering in IITs.

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has given a go-ahead to the Indian Institutes of Technology across the country to provide exit options for students who want to opt out of the course midway.

The move, can be understood as a plan to reduce the number of students dropping out of the premier technical education institutes. It will allow students pursuing BTech in IITs to switch to a BSc Engineering degree after the first two semesters if they are not able to keep up with the academic rigour needed for the BTech course. Union MHRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal stated that this proposal was up for discussion in a recent IIT Council meeting. The number of students dropped out of IITs in the last five years stood at a staggering 7,248, as per MHRD data.

The minister also added that apart from the IITs, the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) have already been given permission to incorporate exit options, as per their convenience.

The draft of National Education Policy, which has been submitted to the Union Cabinet also had explored the possibility of offering flexible entry and exit points for students in higher education. Imaginative and exible curricular structures will enable creative combinations of disciplines for study, and would offer multiple useful entry and exit points, thus demolishing currently prevalent rigid boundaries and creating new possibilities for life-long learning, states the Cabinet draft of the NEP.

Overall a good move

The news of IITs possibly adopting to a new course structure with exit points has evoked diverse responses from stakeholders. While the intitial responses have been welcoming of the move, former students of the IITs and sector experts have flagged caveats in the policy, which, according to them, need more clarity.

Speaking to TNM, Neeraj Parthasarathy, an IIT Alumnus, says that the decision to offer exit option could be most helpful for those pursuing the integrated masters degree courses in IITs. This could help students pursuing integrated masters program at IITs but probably did not think through. They can take the exit option, go with bachelors degree and secure a job, he points out.

He also explains that such options could also help students who tend to figure out that their interests lie elsewhere during the course of their study. They get to take away a basic degree which can possibly help them in the long run, he explains.

Certifying skill levels of students necessary

However, sector experts have expressed concerns over the policy itself and stated that though it is a welcome announcement, it comes with caveats.

Ramachandran K, Head, Strategy of an online learning and Skilling company tells TNM that the MHRD needs to predefine the amount of skills to be imparted in every semester to ensure that the students who opt for exit option are equipped with something to get them jobs.

"If somebody is able to exhibit that the necessary skills have been accomplished and if the curriculum is modified accordingly, then it is great to have an exit option so that when he comes out, he at least has a certain level of mastery over certain things, which he otherwise would not have got," he explains, adding that the job of certifying that the candidate has the said skills must be taken up by the IITs so that the students are not viewed with skepticism in the job market.

Gig-based recruitment helps students

Gig economy refers to a job market in which the proportion of short-term contract work or freelance work is on the rise when compared with the rigid and conventional labour structure.

Placing emphasis on how, in the last three years companies have reduced reliance on educational degrees and have started to focus on the skill-set of the candidates while hiring, Ramachandran says that this move towards a gig economy is what will benefit the students who opt to exit.

In a more gig-based economy, if we are able to bring in skill-based curriculum and a way to exhibit and certify the skill level combined with the possibility of convincing the industry that the institutes have two kinds of people -- one with a certificate and one with no certificates but a set of skills which are certified by the institutes themselves, then I think this is a great concept," he added.

But, he also says that these policy ideas might not really materialise on the ground level since a lot of IITs have chosen to not provide exit options to students studying undergraduate and masters courses.

Stigma must be broken

Neeraj also mentions that while the policy is well-intended, it must ensure that students who choose to exit the courses are not viewed differently from others by potential employers.

This could benefit the students as they still do go out with a degree from a well known institution and can potentially help them land jobs. But my only concern being would this degree become some sort of a stigma? I hope this would be taken in a good way by recruiters (both on and off campus) as these guys have competed with the brightest minds of the country, he explains.

IITs on deliberation mode

Meanwhile, many IITs are still undecided on whether to jump on the bandwagon and alter their course structure based on the MHRD statement or not.

When TNM contacted IIT Madras, an official spokesperson responded that at present the institute offers exit options only for students pursuing their PhD, by which if they are unable to meet the necessary academic requirements, they can choose to exit with an MS degree. Any such policy decision will only be taken by Senate after due deliberations in (all) Departments and Board of academic courses. As on Tuesday, IIT Madras has not initiated any 'exit option' for B.Tech, Dual Degree, MSc, MA and MTech programs, the institute said.

Subrahmanyam, the Dean of Academic Program in IIT Hyderabad also told TNM that currently the institute offers exit option only to PhD scholars and that exit options for MTech students has not been discussed in its senate meetings.

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Exit option for IIT students: Experts welcome move but want stigma addressed - The News Minute