IIT Council Meet 2023: IITs need to give due diligence while implementing multiple-entry options – Times of India

Reported by Aditya Wadhawan: In the recently held 55th IITs Council meeting in Bhubaneswar, the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, directed the IITs to implement multiple entry and exit options which is one of the objectives laid down in NEP 2020.
The initiative is aimed at regulating student dropouts in IITs. Attended by 23 IIT directors, senior officials from the Education Ministry, and the chairperson of UGC, the IITs are already providing an option of exit in their BTech and PhD programmes, but they are cautious to implement the entry options as it would adversely affect the teaching-learning outcomes.
Speaking to Education Times, V Ramgopal Rao, former director, IIT Delhi, says, “Implementing multiple exits among IITs is feasible and many of them have already been doing it. BTech programmes of IITs do provide an ‘exit diploma’ option to the students wherein they can exit from the course after earning the required number of credits. IITs have exit options like Bachelor in Science and diplomas. Even in the PhD programmes, an exit option of MS is available to students. However, implementing the multiple-entry option looks complicated as admissions to all the undergraduate courses in IITs are conducted based on JEE Advanced results. Students would not be able to cope with the curriculum by randomly entering into any course of the IITs as it might create not only learning gaps among them but would also adversely affect them qualitatively.”
“Multiple entry options must not eventually end up becoming backdoor entry points into the flagship programmes as it will lower the brand value of IITs, which follows rank-based admissions and its violations are taken very seriously. Few cautions need to be exercised for multiple entry options, some caution should be exercised while implementing these initiatives. For instance, IITs need to ensure that the quality of the students at the point of exit so that their competence in the marketplace remains viable and the brand name of IITs does not get affected,” adds Prof Rao.
Professor Apurba Kumar Sharma, dean, academic affairs, IIT Roorkee, says, “The multiple entry and exit options are feasible among IITs and the exit options are being provided to the students at various levels. However, while implementing the entry options for students, the course mapping needs to be done essentially to achieve an equivalence within the courses taught in other institutions. Also, a reasonable gap needs to be identified for giving the students entry into the course in IITs as an unusually long gap may change their orientation once they enrol themselves in an academically rigorous system.”
“The full implementation of multiple entry and exit would integrate all the other HEIs with IITs. It would also bring down dropout rates as students will have more freedom and flexibility to enroll in or withdraw from courses as per their requirements,” adds Sharma.