‘I will not be defined by a college degree’
There are more than 7248 college dropouts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) in India during the last five years with this mentality. This is due to placement offers or other better opportunities among few of the many options for students leaving the course midway, said Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Saturday during the winter session of Parliament.
Congress MP, GC Chandrasekhar asked the HRD Minister about the reasons for the early exit for students from IIT/IIMs. On which, HRD Minister replied, students who were not able to keep up with the academic standard came for the discussion in the IIT Council meeting held in October, where the students were prescribed to opt. for the B.Sc (Engineering) degree.
In 2018, a total of 11,279 seats were offered to the Undergraduate Engineering Students in the IITs, which saw an increase of 291 seats in 2017 and 800 seats were reserved for Females candidates for gender balance in IITs.
HRD Minister said we are taking all the steps and procedures to decrease the IITs dropouts. The institutes are conducting regular counseling and monitoring academically weak students.
He further said we are providing fellowship, scholarship, assistance and tuition fee waiver to students.
At present, there are 16 IITs and 13 IIMs in India.