HRD Ministry: 889 of the Students in IITs Dropped Out in 2016-17

According to the data released by the HRD Ministry, close to 9% of the students enrolled in the Indian Institutes of Technology had dropped out in the academic session 2016-17. This latest data shows that 889 students had dropped out of IITs in the previous academic year.

Out of these 889 students who dropped out, 630 or around 71% were enrolled in PG programmes, 196 were Ph.D. scholars and 63 of them were enrolled in UG courses. Also, out of the total 9,885 seats, 73 were vacant in the academic year 2016-17.

The number of students dropping out of IITs has increased in the past two years. In 2015-16, 656 students had dropped out from the 23 IITs across the country. In 2016-17, this figure marked an increase of 35%.

Check Out the Number of Dropouts at different IITs:

Stating the reason behind the huge number of dropouts, the HRD Ministry said that Ph.D. scholars and postgraduate students quit their education midway because of the lucrative job opportunities in the public sector or other better job options.

Also Read: Students Withdraw Admissions from Top IITs to Take Admission in Colleges Near Home

However, undergraduate students quit the courses due to poor performance, wrong career choices made by them after leaving school or because of personal reasons.

Apart from the rising number of dropouts in IITs, the faculty to student ratio in IITs had been questioned by the HRD Ministry a number of times. As per the data of the ministry, 35% of the faculty positions at IITs are vacant as recorded in 2017, whereas, this vacancy was 38% in 2016.

Also Read: Rs. 20,000 Crore to be granted by Centre for Setting Up New IITs

Different initiatives have been taken by the government to increase the number of faculty members at IITs in order to improve the faculty to student ratio. The aim of the ministry is to help IITs improve their global ranking.