IIT-D offers ‘early graduation’ option to final-year students

The Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi (IIT-D) on Monday announced it would provide an “early graduation” option to its final-year students to avoid any delay

The Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi (IIT-D) on Monday announced it would provide an “early graduation” option to its final-year students to avoid any delay in their future plans due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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According to IIT-D director V Ramgopal Rao, the senate—the highest decision-making body of the institute—approved the policy. “According to the current plan, we hope to get students back on the campus in a phased manner from July 2. However, these dates can change depending on how the Covid-19 situation develops (they may be delayed). Since there may be some delay, a time-bound Early Graduation Plan is being offered. We will not force students to take it, but will give them the flexibility to exercise this option,” Rao said.

Under the early graduation option, which will allow students to graduate by the end of June, they can either choose an “audit” or a “credit” option. In the credit option, the students will take online tests, home exams, assignments and telephonic viva-voce, among other options, Rao said.

The audit option will allow students to choose to be evaluated based on their previous exams. “The course instructors will inform the students about their grades based on their previous performances. In case they are not satisfied with that, they can appear for online tests or home exams under the credit option,” he said.

“All early graduation requirements will be met through an online process. No student will need to come to the campus. The only reason the graduating batch will need to come to the campus will be to pick up their belongings,” the director added.

“Besides, students can also choose the regular graduation process as and when they are allowed back on the campus,” he said.

The students will be asked to pick an option through an online portal in the next few days. “In case a student cannot complete their graduation requirements by the end of June via these options, they will have a fallback option to graduate when the semester reconvenes. The pass/fail percentages this year will be no different from previous years. It will be our responsibility to ensure that no one is disadvantaged because of the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic,” Rao said.

Meanwhile, students said that the administration should fix a uniform criteria for the audit option for all courses. “Audit criteria for many courses like Maths are unmanageable. They go as high as 80 marks and students need to be given relaxation, in lieu of the reduced quality of online education. We hope the administration can fix the audit criteria for all courses, instead of providing guidelines, so as to smoothen out the heterogeneity in these difficult times. This would significantly lower the misery for many students [sic],” a statement by the IIT-D board of students read.