IITs, IIMs witness significant decline in dropout rate amid measures to help students' academic performance

Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Mangament (IIMs) and other higher education institutions have witnessed a significant decline in the drop-out rate of students in last five years with institutions taking hosts of measures to help lagging students improve their academic performance and catch up with the others.

As per latest data with the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, drop out rate of students in the IITs came down to 0.68% in 2019-20 from 2.25 % in 2015-16.

The drop-out rate of students in the IIMs came down to 0.78% in 2019-20 from 1.04% in 2015-16.

Other higher education institutions also recorded a significant decline in the drop-out rate of students from 7.49% in 2015-16 to 2.82% in 2019-20.

The HRD ministry attributes the trend to a number of “corrective measures” taken by the institutions to minimise the drop-out rate of the students.

“Those measures include appointment of advisers to monitor the academic progress of the students and provide for peer assisted learning to the students lagging behind. An effective counselling system brought in place to de-stress students is another key step yielding positive results,” a ministry official said.

The issue of students drop out in higher education institutions, particularly in the IITs and other centrally-funded institutions came in focus after a news about the IIT Roorkee expelling as many as 73 B Tech students due to their under-performance hit the headlines in 2015, triggering a massive political row as most of these students belonged to the reserved categories.

Though the institute took the students back in wake of the controversy, the then HRD Minister, Smriti Irani (now Textile Minister), held a meeting with all the IITs later and asked them to take measures for helping the students lagging in academics.

To reduce the students drop out, the IITs introduce a host of measures including provisions for additional classes for academically weaker students., summer quarter classes during vacations for such students.

“Various programmes like student mentorship programme, guided progress scheme were introduced to to help academically weak students,” an official said.

In 2016, the university grants commission (UGC) revised its regulations for appointment of teachers members and other academic staff in the university and colleges, bringing in a provision for making teachers devote two hours of extra per week in teaching students

“Teachers shall devote at least two hours per day for mentoring of students (minimum fifteen students per coordinator) for community development/extra curricular activities/library consultation/research in case of under-graduate courses and/or at least two hours per day for research in case of post-graduate courses, for which the necessary space and infrastructure shall be provided by the university/college,” the UGC stipulates in its regulations revised in 2018.