IIT Council Meet 2017: Wellness Centres to be Set Up to Help Students De-Stress

In the last few years, IITs have been reported to have witnessed an increasing number of campus suicide cases which has left these institutes in question with respect to the pressure that they add on to a student's mind. In order to deal with the same, IITs will now come up with the following:

• Wellness centres will be set up on campus with a primary objective to help students deal with the mental stress they face which may be a result of academics or peers. The wellness centres will offer remedial courses to the students.
• A non-academic induction programme will be organised for the freshers beginning this year, that will help students adjust themselves in the atmosphere of the institute.

The decision was a result of the meeting of the IIT Council that was held on 28th April 2017, chaired by Union HRD Minister, Mr. Prakash Javadekar.

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At the meeting of the apex coordination body of all the 23 IITs of the country, the plan to increase seats for female students was also given a nod and a formal approval.

On an average, every year, about 4,500 girls are able to crack the engineering entrance exam for IITs i.e. JEE Advanced. Despite that, only about 800 out of them get a seat at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology of the country. Hence, the step to increase the number of seats through a supernumerary quota for girl students. This will ensure at least 20 percent participation of female candidates as against the current 8 percent.

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The IIT Council meeting nearly lasted for about seven hours. Discussions on hiking tuition fee by 122 percent, grant of financial concessions for special category students, setting up of an NAAC-like accreditation agency etc. were taken up during the meet.