Chronicle notes: This study states that once students join a premier engineering institute, they neglect the studies. The study done for IIT-Delhi students is equally applicable to students from other engineering colleges.
IITians too bunk classes, finds audit
6 Jul 2007, 0523 hrs IST , TNN
NEW DELHI: They burnt midnight oil to crack JEE to earn a seat in their dream technical education institute, IIT-Delhi. But that flame has reduced to a flicker in the four-year programme with a majority of IIT-Delhi students not taking interest in their engineering lessons. An internal audit has found out that at least half of the total students skip 15 out of 60 lectures (around 25% of the classes) and 10% of the total 5,000 students fail to meet the 75% attendance criteria at the end of the semester.
And this trend has been spotted in the past three to four years. "The disinterest is due to the fact that IITians start looking for opportunities abroad the moment they step in and the recent craze for MBA. Most students are extremely career-oriented and so much pre-occupied with preparations for tests for higher studies abroad and CAT that they neglect their engineering studies," said R R Gaur, head of the national resource centre for value education at IIT-D, which is set up under the ministry of human resources development for integration of engineering education with human values. It conducted the survey.
Gaur, who is also a professor at the department of mechanical engineering, said: "Though the students put in a lot of hard work in the beginning to clear the JEE, they don’t keep up the tempo in IIT."
The survey also found out that students are not making the right use of their campus life. "They should help each other, behave like a team and live harmoniously in the hostel. Moreover, we have also noticed that there is extremely low interaction with the teachers, though they stay on the same campus."
The highly competitive spirit among residential students in extra-curricular activities have also affected the friendly ambience in the hostel, Gaur said. "However, we will address all these issues in a two-day value education orientation programme, to be held on July 28 and 29 for fresher. We will focus on key issues like analysing the perceptions of success and career among students, their expected pay package and choice of company," he said.
The last day of the session will be divided into four themes — how to make most of campus life, why most engineers turn into MBAs and not put into use what they have learnt in IIT in four years, how to develop a healthy body and mind and the importance of fulfilling social responsibilities as an engineer. Similar sessions will also be conducted in the middle and end of the semester.
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