IITs plan to fast track degrees with credit system

From 2016, IIT students will be getting their B. Tech degree certificate in 3 ½ yrs instead of 4yrs, thanks to the new credit score announced.

Emulating the US system, all IITs plan to give their students a flexible time frame to complete the BTech programme. The premier institution will be switching to credit score from 2016-17 academic session.

Under this new system, students have to accumulate a stipulated number of credits, including class lecture, laboratory, workshop and field work. Students will be free to decide how much time they need to complete the course. This means slow learners have eight years to complete it.

"A student who finishes seven semesters in three-and-a-half years will have the scope for enriching his academic career by doing something on his own in the last six months. It could be an entrepreneurship venture or a start-up. While IIT will award him the degree at the convocation, the student will get a provisional marksheet at the end of three-and-a-half years to take up a job," the IIT-Kgp director said.

The credit score system is highly inspired by the evaluation pattern of top-notch technology institutes like MIT, Stanford and Harvard.

IIT-Kharagpur is also mulling inter-IIT mobility once the uniform credit code is introduced across institutes. "Every IIT has its own centres of excellence. A student should be allowed to go and spend a semester or two at one of his preferred IITs. The credits earned by him during his stay will be exchanged. Though he will get the degree from the IIT where he is enrolled, the credits earned in any other IIT will be added to his marksheet," Chakrabarti said.

Source: TOI