Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur is introducing honours and inter-departmental degrees, will allow "direct admission" to winners of global Olympiads and expand the scope of learning it offers to include Social-Sciences, Communication, Humanities, Economics (SCHEME) as part of its revamped curriculum. The institute is also offering an exit degree option for those students who want to leave the program in the middle. IIT Kanpur has overhauled its curriculum to bring it in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and according to the recommendations of a review that was initiated in 2018, the institute said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to a communique shared by the IIT Kanpur: "The revamped curriculum will introduce new degree options including the Honours degree and options of new inter-departmental degree programs. It will also extend the scope of learning to include Social-Sciences, Communication, Humanities, Economics, Management, and Environment (SCHEME). The Core Courses will be restructured to give greater flexibility to the core curriculum. Technology will drive teaching and pedagogy to take learning to the next level. Further, the program will also enable counting of designated online courses done by students on MOOC platforms to be counted for credits."
IIT Kanpur has also made the existing grading scheme more granular with a “fine-grained mechanism” of students' assessments. It also aims for guiding and counselling the students in a way that focuses more on ethics.
As per the recommendations of the National Education Policy (2020), the revamped curriculum will be introducing ground-breaking reforms in the rules governing termination of undergraduate programs with an exit degree, due to inadequate student performance, the IIT Kanpur statement added.
IIT Kanpur will comprehensively review the academic programmes and the associated curriculum every ten years. The present review for the decade beginning in 2020-21 was initiated in November 2018 and was completed in September 2021 after a detailed consultative process involving the various stakeholders including the alumni.
The transformative curriculum is released as a part of the Undergraduate Academic Review Committee Report 2020-21 (UGARC 2020-21) and is approved by the IIT Senate in its meeting held during October 6-7, 2021
Professor Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur said: “At IIT Kanpur we have always believed in supporting our students through a curriculum that not just enhances their skills but produces 21st century engineers and entrepreneurs who are agile and updated with the latest technological and academic innovations.”
“The revamping of the existing curriculum, introduction of courses relevant to today's changing world and the revised grading system is in continuation of our steps in this direction and in line with the recommendations of the National Education Policy (2020) of the Government. A key aspect of the revamp is much needed flexibility to the system enabling it to adapt to the changing academic landscape across the world. We are hopeful that these features will enable IIT Kanpur to be the preferred institute for its programs both nationally and internationally,” he added.