IIT Delhi has started various new programs to meet the directives and guidelines proposed through National Education Policy (NEP) by the Indian government in July 2020. The Institute has in recent years started a School of Public Policy, School of Artificial Intelligence, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Department of Design, which is all interdisciplinary in nature. Every Ph.D. student admitted in this academic unit is supervised by two or more supervisors belonging to different academic disciplines, the official statement said.
The institute already has multiple interdisciplinary undergraduate programmes, and several more are in the pipeline, IIT Delhi said in a statement. Two new BTech programmes of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary nature namely BTech in Engineering and Computational Mechanics, and BTech in Materials Engineering were started in the academic year 2020-21.
More interdisciplinary programmes are being started, such as BTech programme in Energy Engineering starting in the academic year 2021-22, and the Bachelor of Design in 2022-23. It has been planned to start a BTech programme in Design from 2025-26, IIT Delhi said.
IIT Delhi is also starting two new multidisciplinary programmes at the postgraduate level-- MTech in Electric Mobility, and Master of Public Policy from 2021-22. Discussions are underway for an MTech programme in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, the institute said.
Institute has started new schools, departments, and centers at the institute with multi-disciplinary teaching and research programmes that follow the broad objectives of the NEP 2020. New departments such as ‘Department of Energy Science and Engineering And ‘Optics and Photonics Centre' have been established in the institution which will focus on postgraduate programmes including special programs for industry professionals.
As NEP 2020 focuses on the practical and professional approach of various courses, educational giants like IIT Delhi are formulating their course structures accordingly to fulfill the objectives envisioned through the policy.
Talking about the new courses and their implementation structure, Professor V Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi said, "As an Institute of Eminence, IIT Delhi is fully cognizant of its role in the timely and proper execution of educational policies. The Institute is carefully examining the structure and nature of its existing programs, which could provide a strong foundation for introducing the NEP 2020 directives. Over the last many months, a committee for the implementation of NEP 2020 has carefully considered all Higher Education-related guidelines. Currently, feedback on the committee's report is being sought from all academic units for further deliberations''.