Why dropouts are increasing in IITs?

According to a data released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development around nine per cent of the total students dropped out from the IITs. Of the available seats—9985—73 were not taken and the figure for dropouts was 889.

Around 12 lakh students from all over the country will write the entrance exams for the IIT – JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) Mains. Out of these only 11,000 students will finally make it to the IITs in 2017 which is less than 1 per cent of the examinees.

A seat in the IITs is indeed a coveted one.  

What’s surprising is that still people tend to drop out from one of the most premium institutes of the country. The numbers are really alarming.

According to a data released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development around nine per cent of the total students dropped out from the IITs. Of the available seats—9985—73 were not taken and the figure for dropouts was 889.

In contrast to the previous academic year 2015–16, where it was only 656, the number of dropouts has increased by 35 per cent.

The maximum dropout was by the PG students—about 630. 63 UG students and 196 PHD scholars dropped out.

Of the total 23 IITs in the country, 14 IITs witnessed a dropout. IIT Roorkee has the most dropouts of 27 per cent followed by IIT Delhi 20.6 per cent, IIT Kanpur 17.4 per cent and IIT Kharagpur 10.6 per cent. Surprisingly, the new IITs opened recently in Tirupati, Bhilai, Dharwad, Goa, Dhanbad and Jammu didn’t witness any dropouts.

As per the MHRD, the reason for such mass dropouts of PHD and PG students is, offers for placement in PSUs and personal preferences of better opportunities outside the college. The reason for UG students leaving the courses in the middle is the wrong choice made initially, their poor performance and personal reasons.

Yet another reason causing concern is the deaths of IIT students. In the academic year 2016–17, a total of eight deaths were reported from six IITs. Of these, four were unnatural and four were accidental.

Another area of concern according to MHRD data, is the shortage of faculty in the IITs. From a total sanctioned post of 13012, around 35 per cent —4500 faculty posts— were vacant in July 2017. In 2016, 38 per cent of the faculty posts were vacant.

The ministry and the IITs themselves are trying their best to address these issues. Recently, many IITs launched student wellness programmes in their campuses to make the student community stress free.

IIT Bombay and Delhi invited applications from professors of foreign universities highlighting the benefits of being an IIT professor and the perks they would be entitled to. Also, many initiatives are being planned to get quality professors through the alumni network of these institutes. Inviting guest faculty and adjunct faculty has been the practice recently, to address the shortages of quality faculty.