'Favouritism, sexual harassment': 24.2% IIT Kanpur PhD students unsure of future, finds survey

NEW DELHI: Several PhD students in Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) expressed concerns about favouritism by their guide and six students alleged sexual harassment in the lab, as per the survey conducted by Vox Populi IIT-K, a student media body of the institute. The survey has been published amid the recent suicide reports.

Two IIT Kanpur students died by suicide in January due to depression and stress. The total students’ deaths at IIT-K campus in the last two months is three, of which two students were pursuing PhD and one was a MTech student of aerospace engineering department.

The survey was conducted among PhD students in July 2023 to “study the academic challenges, lab dynamics, and institutional policies shaping the lives of over 2,000 PhD students”.

From guide interactions to discrimination, several students and administrators responded to the challenges faced by the scholars. The students body said that it will soon publish the survey held to understand financial constraints and personal struggles of IIT-K students.

Also read‘System let him die’: IIT Kanpur MTech student was depressed due to low grades, unemployment

Challenges faced by IIT-K PhD students

As per the survey, 38% of the PhD students meet their guide 3-4 times a month and only 10% of the students meet the guide almost everyday. Of the 197 respondents, 18% said that they rarely meet their guide.

On difficulty in changing the guide, 59 students opined that it was “very difficult” and only 11 found it “very easy”.

The student body received 63 responses on discrimination from guides in the lab. Out of these, 8 students said they have faced casual sexism, 9 alleged casteism, 18 for elitism, and 1 alleged sexual harassment. Twenty students claimed they faced quid pro quo harassment, an advantage granted in return for something, in labs. Five students alleged sexual harassment by peers in lab and 14 faced casual sexism.

Amidst the challenges faced, only 22.7% felt confident about their future prospects, the survey finds. 38.7% said they had limited options and 24.2% were unsure of their future.

Of the 196 responses, 60.7% scholars wished to pursue a career in academia, while 23.4% were seeking employment in the industry, corporate or public sector. Notably, 8.6% of them were unsure about their career options.