Lakhs of students appear for different entrance examinations every year for various degree programs in order to get admission into the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) but a few of them only make it to the premier institution.
In order to give the experience of IIT culture to students who could not make it to the IITs, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) has been offering non-degree programmes since last decade.
The programme is available at various levels for students including Engineering, Sociology, Development Studies and more and it helps students pursue part-time or full-time courses and spend an entire semester at IITGN for undertaking research, projects and participate in various internship at the institute.
"The main objective is to give a chance to the deserving students to be introduced to the IIT systems, which is otherwise not possible for a large number of students owing to the cut-throat competition in entrance examinations. Hence, the students are no longer restricted to qualifying JEE or GATE to learn from the culture of an IIT," Sudhir K Jain, director, IITGN said to Times Of India.
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He further stated that the initiative was started to change the notion of IITs being exclusive and thus they wanted it to be inclusive and transparent. Jain believes that it is better than online courses where there is no direct interaction between the faculty and students.
“The programme helps the students learn without hampering their regular degree as the colleges give them some credit for the courses done at IITGN," added Jain.
The students will have to pay fees of IITGN for the entire semester and follow rules and guidelines of IIT. After completion of their semester, they will be given a certificate from the institute and then they can return to their college.
Admissions for the same are open for full-time and part-time non-degree programmes for both Semester-I (August-November) and Semester-II (January-April).
Criteria To Get Enrolled at IIT GN: Those students who have registered for a degree in a recognized institute in India or abroad, have completed at least one year of college education, and sponsored by that institute to complete the academic requirements at IITGN, can apply for admission as full-time non-degree students.
Similarly, students, engineers or scientists of other institutes, industries or research labs can apply as part-time, non-degree students while pursuing other endeavor at their parent organization.