ISM Dhanbad and IIT Roorkie Scrap Unpopular Courses

 

In a move to reduce the number of vacant seats at IIT Roorkee and Indian School of Mines (ISM) Dhanbad, a number of courses have been scrapped at these colleges.  The move will affect over 1.19 lakh students who have appeared for the JEE (Advanced) on May 25 this year. 

The IIT courses scrapped are pulp and paper engineering and mining engineering with MBA.  The ISM courses scrapped are petroleum engineering (dual degree).  Other unpopular courses are Ocean Engineering and Mineral Engineering with MBA, which may be scrapped in due course.  To compensate, some new courses have been introduced at the IITs at Hyderabad, Gandhinagar and Bhubhaneshwar.  On the whole, the total number of seats has reduced from 9,867 last year to 9,784 this year. 

Experts are of the view that discontinuing courses that are not popular will reduce the number of vacancies at these institutions.  For example, around 250 seats had remained vacant last year after the JEE (Advanced) examination.  An IIT professor remarked, "Some IIT courses are unpopular.  Students opting for them are sometimes disinterested and leave in the middle."  A former IIT director observed, "Mainstream engineering courses are preferred, because even in a well-defined job market, too much specialization at the undergraduate level is not preferred by students.”