Over 2,000 IIT students dropped out in last two years

india

Updated: Jul 30, 2019 05:21 IST

Dropouts, mostly at the postgraduate level, at India’s premier Indian Institutes of Technology, totalled 2,461 across the past two years, translating into just around 1.37% of the 90,0000 student strength of the 23 engineering schools (across all programmes) each year.

A question pertaining to the dropout rate was raised in the parliament last week.

“The maximum dropouts were from the post graduate and Ph.D programmes. The reasons may be attributed to shifting to other colleges, personal reasons, medical reasons, placement during PG courses and pursuing higher education abroad. The drop out in undergraduate programmes is attributed to withdrawal due to wrong choices filled, poor academic performance of students, personal and medical reasons,” Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank told the Rajya Sabha.

The Indian Institutes of Technology at Delhi and Kharagpur account for over 50% of the dropouts. In the last two years, IIT Delhi saw 782 dropouts while IIT Kharagpur saw 622.

An IIT Delhi official said the main problem is that state-owned companies announce their selection of candidates after the academic year has started. “The bulk of these dropouts at IITD are Masters students who are joining state-owned firms,” this person said, adding that the school has been working with the HRD Ministry to address the issue.

During the same period, 99 students dropped out of the Indian Institutes of Management, according to HRD ministry data.