IIT Kharagpur saw 15 admissions to sports, Science Olympiad seats; cut PhD evaluation time by 40%: Director

The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) admitted 15 students, including 3 under sports, and 12 under Science Olympiad quota for the academic year 2025-26, and reduced the average PhD thesis evaluation time by nearly 40% through digitised processes, director Suman Chakraborty said while addressing the graduating Class of 2026.

The director also announced that the engineering institute is undergoing a comprehensive institutional transformation to become a globally relevant multidisciplinary technological institute, according to an official press release.

The transformation aims to boost academic excellence and expand the institute’s impact in education, research, innovation, healthcare, and global engagement, the statement read.

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IIT Kharagpur appointed 249 faculties from Oct 2025 to June 2026

Under the transformation, IIT Kharagpur has launched major academic reforms under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, including Double Major Programmes, interdisciplinary minors, 25 micro-specialisations, flexible academic pathways and rolling PhD admissions.

Moreover, the technology institute has also embarked on a journey to digitised thesis processing and an Innovation and Technology Development doctoral pathway to promote research with greater societal and industrial relevance.

“From October 2025 to the middle of June 2026, 39 Selection Committees were convened, resulting in the selection of 249 faculty members across all levels, including 50 Professors, 55 Associate Professors and 144 Assistant Professors, of whom 151 represented fresh recruitments,” Suman Chakroborty said.

The student support system has also been transformed through the SETU WellBeing Framework, offering enhanced counselling services, AI-enabled mental health support , faculty mentoring and peer mentoring to improve student wellbeing, Chakraborty said in the statement.

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Notably, the research activity has recorded major development during the year 2025-26, with IIT Kharagpur securing 336 sponsored projects worth nearly Rs 359 crore and executing 275 industrial consultancy projects valued at around Rs 55 crore, he added.

In addition, the engineering institute has also increased its engineering medicine ecosystem by establishing the faculty of integrated health science and technology and advancing plans for postgraduate medical education .

The technology college has also improved its position by 10 places to rank 205 in the QS World University Rankings 2027.

“Universities must move beyond knowledge creation to generating measurable societal impact. The defining question for every university in the decades ahead is: Did it make society better because it existed?" he said, adding that IIT Kharagpur's goal is to become not only a globally recognised university but a globally relevant one.