My last blog titled, "Proposal for Lateral Admission into IITs," resulted in a large number of emails to me, and they had some excellent suggestions and a few questions. I will deal with them in due course. But one question that was too important to be delayed was whether IITs allow lateral admission amongst themselves.
I have checked and unfortunately, the answer is that they don't, except in some medical situations. When I was a student, there was a provision to change from one IIT to another with some conditions, which ensured that very few people will use this route. But over the last three decades, instead of becoming more flexible, we have become more rigid, and such transfers have become rarer and rarer.
Apparently, there is a fear that if we allow such transfers to take place, some IITs would lose many while some other IITs would gain many. And IITs that fear losing many are opposed to these transfers. How many students did an IIT lose the last time such transfers were allowed. No body has given me an authentic number, but the suspected number is less than 5.
It can't be much larger number for the simple reason that often there are no vacancies in the popular programs, and not too many students want to shift to another IIT for an unpopular program. Also, normally, the students from top few of an IIT would not want to shift to another IIT.
So, apparently, an important flexibility of student seeking transfer from one IIT to another has been taken away because some IIT lost less than 5 students, and that too not from the top performers of that IIT.
If this is the type of rigidity that IITs would follow, what hope do I have to influence IITs in any way. But I am not giving up. You will keep seeing me writing on this blog.
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Mr. M. K. Gandhi and Nathuram Godse
3 weeks ago
8 comments:
As I understand, there is a provision to earn certain credits at other institutes but the degree will still be awarded by the institute where the student was admitted to. Lateral movement is good idea and I guess we are moving in that direction with an effort being made to bring some degree of uniformity in the credit requirement and course structures across all IITs. Allowing horizontal transfer should be the next logical step, I guess.
Manish Shrikhande
@Manish, You don't need uniformity across institutes to allow movement of students. Universities around the world have had student exchanges for ages, without uniformity in their credit requirements and course structures. What is funny to me is that when a student of a foreign university applies to spend a semester at one of our IITs, mostly we consider such applications seriously. But when a student from an Indian university much better than that foreign university applies, then we don't consider such applications. Similarly, if our students want to spend a semester in a foreign university, we will tweak all rules to permit such a thing, but when a student is desirous of spending a semester in another Indian institute, IITs don't like it.
British haven't really left the country as yet.
Is there any update on this policy? I am a PhD student and would like to shift to an IIT near my hometown due to medical and financial problems in the current city.
Sir,
I am a computer science student at IIT Indore,currently in 2nd sem.
I really want to join economics at IIT Kanpur.MY pointer in first sem is 9.58, is it possible??
aishwary
@janu, It is not possible to get a transfer. But if IIT Indore permits it, you can spend a couple of semesters at IIT Kanpur, and you can do many economics courses during that period.
Sir,
I am a chemical science student at IIT Guwahati,currently in 2nd sem.
I really want to join any stream(according to my jee rank) in IIT delhi due to some family reason. is it possible?
Sir, I am a first-year undergraduate student in the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning at IIT Kharagpur. I have had medical issues for the past 4 years, which include Bipolar disorder. Despite several applications submitted to the director of kgp, he is not permitting me to transfer to IIT Delhi as my home is in Delhi and I need parental care due to my medical problem. What should I do now please guide me, whom should I approach or complain about this situation happening with me.
@such, as I said in the blog, there was no policy of lateral admission in IITs. The best option was to seek permission to do 1-2 semesters in another IIT as an exchange student. Even that is discouraged and in any case may not be possible for you since you may not be able to take relevant courses in another IIT. I don't know if there is any policy shift in the last 10 years particularly in light of NEP2020, but knowing how rigid IITs are, I would doubt if such a thing has happened.
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