The IITs receive comparatively higher grants than other engineering colleges in India. While the total government funding to most other engineering colleges is around 100–200 million ($– million) per year, the amount varies between 900–1300 million ($– million) per year for each IIT. The Standing Committee of IIT Council (SCIC) prescribes the lower limit for faculty-to-student ratio as 1:9, applied department wise. The IITs subsidize undergraduate student fees by approximately 80% and provide scholarships to all
Master of Technology students and
Research Scholars (PhD) to encourage students for higher studies, per the recommendations of the Thacker Committee (1959–1961). The cost borne by undergraduate students is around per year. Students from the
OBC,
ST, SC categories, female students as well as
physically challenged students are also entitled to scholarships. The various IITs function autonomously, and their special status as
Institutes of National Importance facilitates the smooth running of IITs, virtually free from both regional as well as student politics. Such autonomy means that IITs can create their curricula and adapt rapidly to the changes in educational requirements, free from bureaucratic hurdles. The government has no direct control over internal policy decisions of IITs (like faculty recruitment and curricula) but has representation on the
IIT Council. The medium of instruction in all IITs is English. The electronic libraries allow students to access online journals and periodicals. The IITs and
IISc, Bengaluru have taken an initiative along with
Ministry of Education to provide free online videos of actual lectures of different disciplines under
National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning. This initiative is undertaken to make quality education accessible to all students. The academic policies of each IIT are decided by its
Senate. This comprises all professors of the IIT and student representatives. Unlike many Western universities that have an elected senate, the IITs have an academic senate. It controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations and results, and appoints committees to look into specific academic matters. The teaching, training and research activities of the institute are periodically reviewed by the senate to maintain educational standards. The
Director of an IIT is the ex-officio Chairman of the Senate. All the IITs follow the credits system of performance evaluation, with proportional weighting of courses based on their importance. The total marks (usually out of 100) form the basis of
grades, with a grade value (out of 10) assigned to a range of marks. Sometimes, relative grading is done considering the overall performance of the whole class. For each semester, the students are graded on a scale of 0 to 10 based on their performance, by taking a weighted average of the grade points from all the courses, with their respective credit points. Each semester evaluation is done independently and then the weighted average over all semesters is used to calculate the cumulative
Grade Point Average (known as CGPA or CPI—Cumulative Performance Index).
Undergraduate education degrees The
Bachelor of Technology (BTech) degree is the most common undergraduate degree in the IITs in terms of student enrollment, although
Bachelor of Science (BS) degree, dual degrees integrating
Master of Science or
Master of Arts are also offered. The BTech course is based on a 4-year program with eight semesters, while the Dual Degree and Integrated courses are 5-year programs with ten semesters. In most IITs, the first year of BTech and Dual Degree courses are marked by a common course structure for all the students, though in some IITs, a single department introduction-related course is also included. The common courses include the basics from most of the departments like Computers, Electronics, Mechanics, Chemistry, Electrical and Physics. At the end of the first year (the end of the first semester at IIT Madras, IIT Bhilai, IIT Palakkad, and IIT Roorkee), an option to change departments is given to meritorious students based on their performance in the first two semesters. Few such changes ultimately take place as the criteria for them are usually strict, In addition to these, the students have to take compulsory advanced courses from other departments to broaden their education. Separate compulsory courses from
humanities and
social sciences departments, and sometimes management courses are also enforced. In the last year of their studies, most of the students are placed into industries and organisations via the placement process of the respective IIT, though some students opt out of this either when going for higher studies or when they take up jobs by applying to the companies directly. Certain IITs, such as IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Hyderabad and IIT Gandhinagar, offer students the option to pursue a double major degree, allowing them to graduate with majors in different disciplines. Most IITs also allow students to graduate with undergraduate minors (from a different discipline) and/or honours (from the same discipline as the major).
Postgraduate education Master's degrees and postgraduate diplomas The IITs offer several postgraduate programs including
Master of Technology (MTech),
Master of Business Administration (MBA), and
Master of Science (MSc). Some IITs offer specialised graduate programmes such as
Master of Design (M.Des.), the Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology (PGDIT),
Masters in Medical Science and Technology (
MMST),
Masters in City Planning (MCP),
Master of Arts (MA), Postgraduate Diploma in
intellectual property Law (PGDIPL), and the Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation & Management (PGDMOM). Some of the IITs offer an M.S. (by research) program; the MTech and M.S. are similar to the US universities' non-thesis (course-based) and thesis (research-based) masters programs respectively. Admissions to master's programs in engineering are made using scores of the
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), while those to master's programs in science are made using scores of the
Joint Admission Test for M.Sc. (JAM). Several IITs have schools of management offering master's degrees in management or business administration. In April 2015, IIT Bombay launched the first U.S.-India joint EMBA program alongside
Washington University in St. Louis.
Bachelors-Masters dual degrees The IITs also offer an unconventional BTech and MTech integrated educational program called "Dual Degree". It integrates undergraduate and postgraduate studies in selected areas of specialisation. It is completed in five years as against six years in conventional BTech (four years) followed by an MTech (two years). Integrated Master of Science programs are also offered at few IITs which integrates the Undergraduate and Postgraduate studies in Science streams in a single degree program against the conventional university system. These programs were started to allow its graduates to complete postgraduate studies from IIT rather than having to go to another institute.
Doctoral The IITs also offer the Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) as part of their
doctoral education programme. In it, the candidates are given a topic of academic interest by the ins or have to work on a consultancy project given by the industries. The duration of the program is usually unspecified and depends on the specific discipline. PhD candidates have to submit a
dissertation as well as provide an oral defence for their thesis.
Teaching Assistantships (TA) and
Research Assistantships (RA) are often provided. The IITs, along with NITs and IISc, account for nearly 80% of all engineering PhDs in India. IITs now allow admission in PhD programs without the mandatory
GATE score. == Culture and student life ==