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IITKgp’s flexible credit system to give students more academic freedom

IITKgps

IIT Kharagpur (IITKgp) is planning to rollout a flexible credit system from the academic year 2016 that will give students nearly 4 extra years to complete their degree. Many IITs allow students to exceed the duration of their degree course by a few years in case the students fail a semester. However, IITKgp will be introducing this new system to allow students to pursue peripheral activities and other career opportunities simultaneously with their degree course.  

Atal Ashutosh Agrawal, a fourth
year student of IITKgp and the Vice President of the Undergraduate Student Body,
says, “We are in the process of designing curriculum for the new system. The idea
behind this initiative is to give students the freedom to grab career
opportunities that come their way during their studies.” Many students give up
international internships or research projects due to time constraints in
pursuing their degree, he mentioned. As per the new system, students will be allowed
to take a gap year and work on their start-ups, take a semester course or an internship
abroad. There is no restriction on the way they chose to utilise their gap
year. Students won’t have to register in the institute for that year, which would
mean that the annual fees for that year need not be paid.

Ideally, each student will be
allowed take 2 years to complete one academic year of their course. This means
that BTech students can take up to 8 years and Dual degree students can take up
to 10 years to complete their degree. If the student has successful passed
their academic year, they can take the next year off to explore career
opportunities. However,
the maximum break that a student can take between academic sessions is just one
year.

One of the students told PaGaLGuY
that the idea for this new system may have been inspired by an incident that
took place a few years ago. A student in the dual degree programme dropped out
in his 4th year to start his own business. He did not return to the
institute to complete his degree, since students didn’t have the gap year option
at that time.

Several foreign universities like
Harvard, MIT, CU, etc. also allow their students to take a semester off to
pursue other hobbies. Besides, these universities also allow students to
graduate early if they have earned the required number of credits to complete
the degree. Indian universities, on the other hand, still haven’t exploited the
possibility of allowing their students to graduate faster and start an early
career. In fact, institutes don’t even offer facilities to earn credits more
than the semester requirement. Alam Baig, another student at IITKgp says, “Graduating
early may disturb the placement process. IIT placements start in December, and companies
may display preference for students who will graduate quicker and join the
company earlier than those graduating at end of the academic year.”

On the other hand, Prof Dipankar
Chaudhry, IIT Bombay, is of the opinion that, “giving students so much freedom
may not always be viable. If such a system is to be implemented, then there
should also be adequate career guidance facilities so that students don’t misuse
their academic freedom and regret wasting a whole year.”

The management and students of
IITKgp are looking forward to implementing this system next year. However, an
official who refused to be named, said that several parameters will need to be
discussed before formally introducing it.

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