IIT-Bombay plans to offer flexible UG coursework – Times of India

Mumbai: IIT Bombay is planning to offer its undergraduate students greater flexibility in adjusting their coursework to align with their interests. The idea is to allow students to choose between being a ‘generalist’ in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) by picking electives from within their own departments or others or a ‘specialist’ in one discipline by taking courses from the same (sub)discipline. The institute is in the process of revising their undergraduate curriculum framework and feedback is being sought from all stakeholders.
While students can choose electives from other departments even now, the plan is to make it more flexible. “The idea is to allow students to take more electives outside of their departments. We are also planning to restructure the first-year curriculum. And there are other plans, nothing is finalised yet,” said an institute professor.
The director of the institute, Subhasis Chaudhuri, shared the feedback forms for first- and final-year students on social media. He wrote, “IIT Bombay has undertaken to revise its undergraduate curriculum framework, with a broad philosophy to give more flexibility to students to adjust their coursework in tune with their interests… We are seeking inputs from all our stakeholders — from students to recruiters.” He appealed to stakeholders to provide feedback on their experience with the current curriculum and how in their vision IIT-B graduates should be prepared to face future challenges 10 years from now. He said the curriculum for ‘specialists’ will be broadened in keeping with the current developments in various subject areas.
Electives are usually courses that students pick from any departments out of interest or if it has any relevance in the existing curriculum. A student said there are some requisite conditions for choosing an elective, based on students’ cumulative performance index. Students can choose electives from their second year onwards, he said.
The feedback form has questions on their curriculum, difficulties, and overlap with previous knowledge, said a student. It asked students if they want more courses in some departments, or if they want any course as a compulsory one, or if there is interest in double major programmes or more semester exchange programmes with international universities, he said.