IIT Kanpur to de-stress PG students-Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to cut down students stress- IIT Kanpur has come up distress policy for PG first years students. The policy is a ‘no termination based on first semester performance’ policy to help postgraduate (PG) students. The purpose of this is to cut down students stress.
The policy will be implemented from July onwards when the session begins. It is a major academic reforms to come into force post a recent spate of student suicides on campus
IIT Kanpur one of the first generation IIT, the institute in the past had seen three such incidents on campus between December 19, 2023 and January 18 this year, which included two research scholars and an MTech student allegedly dying of suicide.
In one such case, The students committed suicide shortly after a he was issued a termination notice by the institute while he could not make an appeal against it in time.
IIT Kanpur to de-stress PG students
According to Professor Shalabh, dean of academic affairs, IIT-Kanpur, the ‘no-termination policy in first semester’ will be implemented from July this year. “The institute has decided that no student will be terminated based on their academic performance (cumulative point index (CPI)) in the first semester and that they will be given another chance to qualify. This will allow students time to improve on their CPI without getting stressed about it,” he said.
Termination Rule in IIT Kanpur
The rule reads if a student performs below the mark even in the second semester, then there will be termination. But students can appeal against this. They have a chance to make an appeal to their faculty against the decision, and if considered appropriate, the termination is then revoked.
Protests Led to The Policy
There was a protest in the campus after the third suicide and students demanded a slew of academic reforms including transparency in grading, evaluation twice per semester and, setting up an ombudsman panel with faculty, an external member as well as student representatives, among others.
The management organized an Open House where the demands were put forward formally with the latter agreeing in-principle to some of these and panels were constituted to work on the same.
Check our Facebook Page