Exchange Programmes Gain Popularity among IIT-B Students
Student exchange programmes are gaining popularity amongst the students of IIT Bombay. The programme enables the students to take a course or a project at a foreign university.
Student exchange programmes are gaining popularity amongst the students of IIT Bombay. The programme enables the students to take a course or a project at a foreign university. According to a survey done by Insight – a student magazine, the number of students applying for such exchange programmes have increased by 50%.
Year wise number of students who opted for exchange programmes:
| Academic Year | Number of Students |
| 2014-15 | 25 |
| 2016-17 | 43 |
The number of students interested in exchange programmes has been increasing since 2004 except for a slight slump in 2007. However, the number remained almost the same between 2012 and 2013.
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Singapore emerged as the favourite destination among students. The National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) are the two institutes that are most popular among the students. Together, these institutes registered for a third of outbound exchanges. Electrical and mechanical engineering students dominated the exchange programmes.
According to a report, the number of EE and ME students participating in the exchange students are equal to the rest of the departments combined.
52 students from the undergraduate, postgraduate and dual degree programmes of the department of electrical engineering have participated in exchange programmes since 2004. Whereas the number of students from the department of mechanical engineering was 44.
The willingness to join exchange programmes can be attributed to increased awareness about such opportunities and rise in the number of MoUs being signed by the institute, informed an ME student Shubham Goyal. He is also the Institute Secretary of International Relations.
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Goyal said that enhanced exposure and the opportunity to travel abroad are also reasons why students want to participate in exchange programmes. He also added that such programmes allow students to enhance their skills by completing a semester of coursework at a foreign university or to take up a project.