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Introduction During the year 2008-2009, IIT Bombay was assigned the responsibility of mentoring two new Indian The Golden Jubilee celebrations of the institute Institutes of Technology at Gandhinagar and Indore. culminated on the 50th Foundation Day of IIT Bombay IIT Gandhinagar started its academic session in the in March 2009. The institute continues to be rated as year 2008-2009 and IIT Indore will open next year. IIT one of the top technical universities in the world. It Bombay has taken up the enormous challenge to set attracts both top quality faculty from all over the world up these two institutes of the stature of an IIT within and the best breed from the country for its Bachelor’s, the span of one academic year, which is unprecedented Master’s and Doctoral programmes. In the 51 years of in history. The tasks involved setting up physical its existence, around 35,000 engineers and scientists infrastructure, defining and installing processes and have graduated from the institute. The institute is systems to start the academic programmes and related known for its strong research groups in varied areas of administrative activities. Preparing the curriculum, science and technology that are making substantial equipping the laboratories, deputing faculty, technical contribution to national projects. The institute is also and administrative support staff and teaching creating a niche for its innovative short-term courses assistants, recruitment of faculty and staff, setting up through continuing education and distance education academic administration system for registration and programmes. The illustrious alumni of this institute maintenance of student records, creation of academic have been major contributors to national and bodies are but a few activities undertaken by this international objectives and are often sought-after for institute. While this task has stretched the resources coveted positions in the realms of business, academics, of the institute to the limit, there is pride and immense and research. The institute continues to interact closely satisfaction to find that the new mentee institutes have with the alumni for enhancing its activities through taken off smoothly. interactions in academic and research programmes as well as mobilizing financial support. The institute has made rapid strides towards the realization of its vision of being the leading institution for postgraduate teaching and research in the country. Academic Programme As a result of all-round efforts spanning over two IIT Bombay has taken several new initiatives in decades, the first milestone will be achieved in the restructuring and strengthening its academic academic year 2014-2015, when among 8250 students programmes at postgraduate and undergraduate levels on roll, the distribution of UG and PG students would over the past five years. Subsequent to the be around 2750 (33.3%) and 5500 (66.6%), respectively. introduction of a new curriculum for the B.Tech. Our student intake has steadily been increasing over programme in 2007, the academic year 2008-2009 the last few years. Compared to 4310 students on roll heralded the restructuring of the two-year M.Sc. and in the year 2001-2002, the number of students on roll in six-year M.Sc.-Ph.D. dual degree programmes and also the academic year 2008-09 is 5865, an increase of 36 introduced an exciting opportunity for students of per cent in a span of seven years. This expansion, Master’s programmes in Technology, Philosophy, however, has not been achieved at the cost of Design and Management to seamlessly move into the undergraduate education, an area in which the Ph.D. programmes in their respective disciplines. The reputation of this institute is acknowledged globally. institute has not only sustained the existing level of The institute has responded pragmatically to the large excellence but has also tried to do significantly better increase in the intake by substantially reorienting itself in all aspects related to academics. Introduction of academically, technologically and administratively and new programmes, increase in intake at the postgraduate using it as a great opportunity to retain its leadership level, focus on research and development are the in engineering education in the country. crucial factors that have helped in IIT Bombay’s recognition as a premier institute of higher learning. 1 The new undergraduate curricula for engineering and Several initiatives to introduce new academic science education was implemented with effect from programmes in order to generate human resource the academic year 2007-2008. It introduced a new rigour relevant to research and industrial sectors as well as in and methodology in undergraduate teaching, laying areas that are socially relevant will be taken in the emphasis on developing analytical skills and academic year 2009-2010. The School of Biosciences challenging the students intellectually. Its flexibility, and Bioengineering and the Industrial Engineering and which gives students a range of degrees to choose Operations Research group have started dual degree from (B. Tech. or B.Tech. with Honors or B.Tech. with M.Sc.-Ph.D programmes this year and M.Sc.-Ph.D. one Minor or B.Tech. with Honors and one Minor or programmes from Mathematics, Earth Sciences and Dual Degree and one Minor), has raised their level of Environmental Science and Engineering are in the enthusiasm for academics. In the Autumn 2008 pipeline. A new M.Tech. programme in Manufacturing, semester, 310 students from the first batch of 2007 were Materials and Modelling, which is visualized to be the allotted minor courses out of a total of 392 eligible trendsetter for offering customized programmes on students, that is, 79 per cent of the eligible students request from leading industrial organizations to cater took this exciting new opportunity. The overwhelming to their specialized needs for human resource response from this batch indicates that our generation for research and development activities, will undergraduate students find the opportunity for minors be introduced in the academic year 2009-2010. This a rewarding experience. The popularity of IIT Bombay postgraduate programme is trans-disciplinary in nature as the most sought-after destination in the nation has and is the first of its kind in the institute and would be continued unabated. It is encouraging to note that 54 administered jointly by the Departments of out of the top 100 rankers in JEE 2008 have opted for Metallurgical Engineering and Material Science, this institute which makes IIT Bombay the first choice Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics. A Master’s for toppers of this prestigious examination. It appears degree programme in Infrastructure Engineering and that the merits of the new curriculum have excited the Management, to be offered jointly by Civil Engineering prospective undergraduate students of the country. Department, IIT Bombay, and Nanyang Technological Similarly, the numbers of applicants seeking admission University, Singapore, has been approved. The joint to the M.Sc. and M.Sc.-Ph.D. dual degree programmes IIT Bombay Monash University Ph.D. programme has and the various postgraduate programmes (many with been considerably strengthened by the induction of their own research fellowships) of the institute have 14 more Ph.D. students during the academic year 2008- increased considerably, and we are admitting students 2009 and the total number of research scholars on roll with very high GATE, JAM and CEED (or equivalent in this programme has gone up to 29. entrance test) scores. Special emphasis on Ph.D. programmes during the past The institute has taken cognizance of the difficulties few years, which include introduction of a faster system faced by the students to cope with the intense of thesis evaluation, introduction of qualifying competition, stress and academic rigour that are examination prior to registration for Ph.D., publication demanded by its programmes. The Institute Student of research papers before thesis submission, among Mentor Programme, initiated a few years ago, provides many others, has yielded rich dividends. The a support structure for the undergraduates, which is turnaround time for evaluation has been significantly essentially managed by the senior students and is reduced without compromising the process. targeted largely for the freshers and sophomores, under Introduction of M.Sc.-Ph.D. dual degree programmes the supervision of a faculty coordinator. This for the students of science disciplines and of M.Tech.- programme reached new heights during 2008-2009, with Ph.D. (similarly for M. Phil.-Ph.D. and others) for the 60 mentors not only ensuring that the first year students students of engineering and other disciplines provide settled comfortably into the campus life, but also attractive options for students enrolled in M.Sc., mentoring senior students at the department level to M.Tech. (and other equivalent) programmes to move solve their academic problems and difficulties. For midstream into the Ph.D. programme. A comprehensive undergraduates, whose academic performance does review of the Ph.D. programme at IIT Bombay has been not meet the requirements for continuation in their initiated in 2009 with the objective of making it more programmes, a second chance for continuation in the effective, productive and attractive. All the academic form of Academic Rehabilitation Programme (ARP) has activities are actively participating in this endeavor and been introduced in the year 2008-2009. A special Senate- it is envisaged that the outcome will have a great impact appointed committee prescribes a customized academic on the research culture of the institute, in general, and load for an ARP student, provides necessary support its doctoral programme, in particular, in the years to with the help of student mentors, and carefully monitors come. behaviour and performance for a semester. An ARP student is rehabilitated into her/his programme on The Ph.D. student strength has been on the rise and successful completion. we are on course to achieve our target of 2000 Ph.D.

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