Over 7,000 Students Quit IIT BTech Midway In Last 5 Years

In the last 5 years, more than 7,000 students have dropped out of India's premier Engineering Insititute, IIT. The dropout data was revealed by the MHRD in the Lok Sabha while talking about the recently launched exit option system that allows students of top Engineering Institutes like IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) and IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology) to switch from BTech to BSc courses after the 2nd semester.

Meanwhile, the exact number of dropouts from IIITs were not available, and according to sources, Indian Institute of Information Technology unlike IIT has not welcomed the idea of exit option to students who find it difficult with the academic pressure and choose to switch courses in the process.

Earlier, IIT Council had left it to the individual institutes to have a say on the exit option that was proposed by the MHRD. In addition, Ministry of Human Resource Development held a forum meeting on October 16 where the proposal was approved, authorizing the IIITs Board of Governors to decide on the modules for the implementation of the Exit Option Programme. As of now, India has 24 IIITs wherein 19 runs on the public-private partnership model

According to some IIITs, the exit option is not the solution to curb the dropout rate at the prestigious engineering institutions. In the meantime, S Sadagopan, director of IIIT-Bangalore has said that the exit option will leave bad effect on the students switching from one course to another and the feeling will stay with them forever. Further, he said that rather than following the path of exit option system students should have trust on the faculty who have decades of professional experience and know what is best for the students.

On similar lines, IIIT-Hyderabad too rejected the plan to implement the exit option at the institute. PJ Narayanan, director of the institute said that IIIT closely monitors students' performance, particularly in the first year and prepare them to cope comfortably in the 2nd year as well. He further said that the institute follows a flexible learning approach and students can also take fewer credits in a semester according to requirement. Nevertheless, he also said that the exit option might help some struggling students.

The MHRD has said that a decent job offer is one of the prime reasons for Postgraduate students to quit courses.