IIT Bombay: 27 of 30 UG students to opt for early exit were SC, ST or OBC

NEW DELHI: Thirty undergraduate students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay opted for early exit in 2023, the first year this policy was implemented. 27 of them – 90% – were from historically-marginalised Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, data obtained from IIT Bombay through a Right-to-Information application shows.

IIT Bombay adopted the policy in 2023, allowing early exit from BTech, BTech-MTech dual-degree, and BS programmes with the lower “BSc Engineering” qualification. As the data shows, there’s a disproportionate representation of Dalit, OBC and Adivasi students among those exercising this option of exiting without obtaining the main degree they would have taken admission for. Given below is the distribution undergraduate students to opt for exit in the first year, across categories.

IIT Bombay: Exits for Bachelor's by category

There is 27% reservation of undergraduate seats for OBCs (non-creamy layer), 15% for SC and 7.5% for ST, in total accounting for 49.5% of seats.

Exits have been allowed for postgraduate programmes for longer. From IIT Bombay, 312 students of various PG programmes have exited since 2019. But in this case, the majority of students are from the unreserved categories of seats. "The information about exit from dual degree to Btech is not readily available," the RTI reply said. "The information on the level at which the students exited is also not readily available".

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IIT: Multiple-exits, dropout rates

The multiple exit and entry in academic programmes is a key feature of the National Education Policy (NEP), implemented by the Narendra Modi government from July 2020. For the Indian Institutes of Technology, the policy was proposed by the IIT Council – the decision-making body for the IITs, chaired by the union education minister – in 2019.

In the NEP 2020, now adopted by many universities for general studies programmes as well, the multiple-entry and exit policy has been framed as an effort to allow students the flexibility to leave and rejoin programmes. Among the IITs, Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur, and Roorkee have this policy and here, it is a measure to control dropout figures. The IIT Council meeting framed it as a way to allow "educationally backward students" to exit with a "minimum academic standard".

According to statistics shared with parliament in December 2023, IITs saw 3,542 students from marginalised communities – SC, ST, OBC – drop out of various programmes – not necessarily undergraduate ones – over the previous five years.

For undergraduate students, the IIT Bombay rule book, updated in 2023, states: “The students admitted and registered in the regular undergraduate programme, viz. B.Tech., B.S., B.Des., B.Tech.+M.Tech. (DD) shall be eligible for an exit degree if they fulfil minimum 160 credits. The exit degree option is also available to all students who were admitted to the UG Programmes, who have not completed their degree requirements within the stipulated time and have not been terminated.”

PG programmes, other IITs

Beyond the undergraduate programmes – in postgraduate engineering, MBA and research – early exits with a lower qualification have been allowed for several years. But here, the number of students from the unreserved category is highest, followed by OBC, Dalit and Adivasi students.

The RTI data reveals that the number of students taking the exit option has grown over the years. There were just 52 in 2019; by 2023, the number had grown to 85.

IIT Bombay: Overall early exits in PG (2019-2023)

The rules for early exit at the PG level, updated this month, state: “In the event of the recommendation of the concerned postgraduate committee about sufficient work done deserving such consideration, the Postgraduate Academic Performance Evaluation Committee (PGAPEC) shall consider exit with a degree.” In this case DIIT degree is awarded to students who take an early exit with a minimum of 58 credits and four Cumulative Performance Index (CPI).

An application for information under RTI was sent to IIT Delhi as well. It didn’t furnish data by category but said that 53 students “got Diploma under exit rule” across courses. IIT Delhi implemented the exit policy for undergraduate programmes in 2023 as well.