The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-Delhi) is seeing a slight decrease in the number of postgraduate and PhD students graduating this year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the total enrolments this academic session (2020-21), at 10,900, touched the highest ever mark, the institute said Thursday.
During the 51st convocation ceremony Saturday, 2,019 students will graduate from IIT-Delhi, of whom 873 are undergraduate students, 848 postgraduates, and 298 PhD scholars. The number of postgraduates and PhD students who graduated in 2019 was 1,001 and 331, respectively. While these two category of students have seen a dip in numbers, there has been an increase in the number of undergraduates.
Addressing the pre-convocation digital press conference Thursday, IIT-Delhi director V Ramgopal Rao said, “Covid has definitely affected our graduation rate this year but it’s not very significant. We managed to quickly move the academic sessions online. All PhD defences and final viva voce were held online. Some students, who needed to experiment in the laboratories, could not complete their thesis work. The labs had remained closed for at least six months.”
The institute, this year, will conduct the convocation in a blended mode -- a small number of attendees will be presented degrees in person, while the majority will join the proceedings virtually. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief guest of the ceremony, will attend through video conferencing.
{{/usCountry}}The institute, this year, will conduct the convocation in a blended mode -- a small number of attendees will be presented degrees in person, while the majority will join the proceedings virtually. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief guest of the ceremony, will attend through video conferencing.
{{/usCountry}}IIT-Delhi has witnessed the highest ever total student enrolment this year at 10,900. “This is the first time we have crossed the 10,000-mark. Over 60% of them are postgraduate and PhD students. This is a significant milestone. IIT-Delhi is now more of a postgraduate institute and not one centered around undergraduate studies,” Rao said.
Officials at IIT-Delhi also hinted at their plan to establish a campus abroad, in the backdrop of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, which allows Indian varsities to establish campuses abroad. Naveen Garg, dean, alumni affairs and international programmes, said, “We are in some very preliminary discussion with a country. We are keen on setting up a campus outside India. We had a meeting with our counterparts on Wednesday.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has also affected the number of patents filed by the institute. “In 2019, we had filed 154 patents but this year, we have filed 115 patents until now. But the institute this year witnessed a significant jump in royalty income from the licensing of these patents. IIT-Delhi has crossed the ₹1-crore-mark in terms of funding from royalty. Some of that money has also come because of our Covid related activities, including a low-cost Covid detection kit developed by the institute,” Rao said.
Listing IIT-Delhi’s achievement in the past one year, Rao said for the first time, the institute has introduced five new masters programmes in a year. These courses include MTech in Cyber Security and MSc in Economics. Besides, the institute has also introduced two BTech programmes --- engineering and computational mechanics, and materials engineering. The institute at present has academic collaborations with 38 countries, the director said.
When asked about the reopening of the campus, which has been shut since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Rao said IIT-Delhi has already allowed PhD students who need the use of laboratories to return to the campus. “We are slowly opening up the campus and around 780 students have already returned and are operating from their hostel rooms. We will next allow MTech students and then undergraduates. We are prioritising on the basis of students’ academic requirements. Meanwhile, the classes are being held online,” Rao said.