Full Form of IIT:
Indian Institute of Technology
IIT Full Form is Indian Institute of Technology. IITs are autonomous public institutes for higher education which are located in various parts of India. However, all IITs are governed by the 1961-Institutes of Technology Act, which has declared IITs to be of national importance. There are seven main institutes of IIT located in various parts of India namely; Delhi, Chennai, Guwahati, Mumbai, Kharagpur, Roorkee, and Kanpur. Nine more were added in places like Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Indore, Gandhinagar, Mandi, Varanasi, Ropar, Patna and Bhubaneswar. There is a council with a chairperson to oversee the administration of all IITs though each one of them operates independently.
IITs conduct a common admission test called IIT-JEE (Indian Institutes of Technology – Joint Entrance Examination) for admitting students to the B.Tech (Bachelor of Technology) program. And there is an entrance exam for admitting students to the post graduate program which is called as GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering). Students are admitted to various courses of engineering and technology based on the percentile scored by students in these examinations. A student from IIT receives higher grants when compared to students from other colleges.
IIT Full Form – Additional Information
In India, engineering is one of the most revered career options. Engineering is blessed with an unmatched degree of societal acceptance and many lucrative prospects that make it all the most important to a typical Indian. What is more responsible for its popularity and massive acceptance is the fact that India has established some of the world’s most sought after highest quality engineering institutions in the world.
These institutes join the ranks of global institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (abbreviated as MIT). Such institutes include the group of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Many notable personalities in the world are alumni from these colleges including Satya Nadella, the current CEO of Microsoft, Sundar Pichai, the present CEO of Google, Nikesh Arora, the CEO of SoftBank, Raghuram Rajan, the governor of Reserve Bank of India etc.
For the purpose of this article, we explore various IITs sprawling across the nation, it is imperative we dwell a little on the history of these prestigious institutions. The history of the IIT can be traced back to the year 1946. In that year, the Viceroy’s Executive Council constituted a committee to assess the possibility on the establishment technical institutions that will engage in high-level industrial developments.
The committee was headed by Nalini Ranujan Sarkar and made recommendations that such institutions should be established. The recommendations led to the foundation of the first Indian Institute of technology in the year 1950 in Kharagpur but was accorded the status of “Institute of National Importance” vide the parliamentary Act the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act in the year 1956.
The Sarkar Committee was instituted to make an assessment on the expansion of IITs in different regions of the country. The recommendations of the committee led to the foundation of the institutes in four places namely, Bombay (in the year 1958), Madras (in the year 1959), Kanpur (in the year 1959), and Delhi (in the year 1961).
Protests in Assam made the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to promise foundation an IIT in Assam. Under Assam Accord, the IIT was established in the year 1994. In the year 2001, the oldest engineering college in the country, the University of Roorkee, was awarded the status of an IIT. The rest is history. With time, many other IITs have been established in order to empower the engineering sector of the country.
As far as the organization structure of the IIT is concerned, the President of Indian enjoys most powers vis-a-vis IITs. He is the ex-officio visitor of the institutes but has residual powers. Under the command of the President, there exists the IIT Council that is composed of the minister-in-charge of technical education in the Government of India, the chairmen of each IIT in the country, the Directors of the IITs, the Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (abbreviated as CSIR) among other notable persons from different backgrounds.
There is Board of Governors of every IIT functioning under IIT Council. The Director of the IIT works under the Board of Governors. The Registrar exercises chief administrative powers and oversees everyday operations of the IIT.
Quality education is essential to progress in life. Thus, the Government of India has appointed institutes that impart higher education in the fields of science, engineering, and technology that is at par with any educational degree sought from a foreign university. These Indian Institutes of Technology are considered very elite institutions and admission is through a competitive process.
ADMISSION PROCEDURE IN IIT
These institutes are opened by the Government’s Ministry of Human Resource Development to enhance the quality of higher education in India. To maintain the standard of the institutes and to ensure that the candidates completing the course are of the adequate level of intelligence, the admission process is very stringent.
The students who wish to take up course studies in IIT have to appear for a common entrance exam known as IIT-JEE, now simply known as JEE or Joint Entrance Examination. This is applicable for undergraduate studies. The candidates who wish to pursue Master’s degree have to appear for GATE or Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering. The admissions are given on rankings and it is always a tough competition to get into any of the IITs. Admissions to Graduate degrees like M.Sc (Chemistry, Physics, and Math), Ph.D. and MBA are confirmed through Common Entrance Examination for Design (CEED), Joint Admission Test for Masters (JAM) and Common Admission Test (CAT).
LIST OF IITs AND COURSES OFFERED
Currently, there are 18 functional IITs and 5 proposed to begin in the 2016 academic year. The functional ones are Kharagpur, Kanpur, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Indore, Hyderabad, Roorkee, Patna, Mandi, Jodhpur, Gandhinagar, Guwahati, Varanasi, Ropar, Bhubaneswar, Tirupati, and Palakkad. It is decided to have at least 1 IIT in every state for the convenience of the students in the locality. The proposed locations are Jammu, Goa, Dhanbad, Chattisgarh (Bhilai) and Dharwad in Karnataka.
The degree for the undergraduate level is B.Tech (Bachelor of Technology) and Master’s level is M.Tech. The older established IITs in Kharagpur, Kanpur, Madras, Bombay, Delhi, Varanasi, Roorkee, and Guwahati offer MS degree in Engineering. The oldest IIT is IIT Kharagpur in West Bengal and it was started in 1950 on a sprawling campus of 2100 acres. The next best in campus size is IIT Kanpur on 1055 acres of land. IIT Bombay (Mumbai) was founded in 1958.
The undergraduate B.Tech program is a 4 years degree course spread over eight semesters. The institutes also offer Dual degree or integrated course that spans for 5 years and ten semesters. The streams of studies offered are Electrical, Electronics, Mechanics, etc. The course structure is the same for Dual Degree as well as B.Tech students in the first year. From the second year onwards the students concentrate on their specialization. The Master’s degree can either be in Information Technology (IT), Master of Design, Master of Arts, Master of City Planning, Post Graduate Diploma in Maritime Operations and Management, etc.
STUDENT LIFE IN IIT
Academic life in IIT is very tough and competitive. Along with academics, there are cultural and technical activities arranged for the students. All IITs have residential accommodation facility on campus for the students as well as the faculty. Many research scholars also avail of the hostel facility during their tenure of doctorate studies.
Being Government sponsored institutes IITs have nationally relevant programs like Nation Social Scheme (NSS), National Cadet Corps (NCC) and National Sports Organization (NSO) for the first year students. The IIT campuses also have sports grounds for various sports like basketball, soccer, tennis, badminton, volleyball, etc.
All IITs have three to four days technical festivals every year and they are popular by different names in different IITs. They are Cognizance (IIT Roorkee), Techfest (IIT Bombay), Techniche (IIT Guwahati), Exodia (IIT Mandi), Kshitij (IIT Kharagpur), Nvision (IIT Hyderabad), Shaastra (IIT Madras), Fluxus (IIT Indore), Celesta (IIT Patna), Concetto (IIT Dhanbad), Technex (IIT BHU), IGNUS (IIT Jodhpur), Techkriti (IIT Kanpur), Tryst (IIT Delhi), Wissenaire (IIT Bhubaneswar) and Amalthea (technical summit)(IIT Gandhinagar)
Just like technical festivals the IITs also hold cultural festivals to showcase the talents of the students. These too have different names like Mood Indigo or Mood-I (IIT Bombay), SPANDAN (IIT Rajasthan), Alma Fiesta (IIT Bhubaneswar), Blithchron (IIT Gandhinagar), Anwesha (IIT Patna), ELAN (IIT Hyderabad), Zeitgeist (IIT Ropar), Rendezvous (IIT Delhi), Alcheringa (IIT Guwahati), Saarang earlier called Mardi Gras (IIT Madras), Exodia (IIT Mandi), Spring Fest (IIT Kharagpur), Tarang /RAVE and Thomso (IIT Roorkee), Srijan (IIT Dhanbad), Kashiyatra (IIT BHU) and Antaragni (IIT Kanpur). These are three to four days festivals normally held between the months of January to March every year.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF IITs
The President of India is the most important person in the organizational chart of the IITs. He is the ex-officio Visitor and the highest authority. The next step In the chart is the IIT Council that comes after the President. This is made up of all the Chairmen and Directors of all the IITs, Chairman of University Grants Commission, minister from Union Government who is in charge of technical education, Joint Council Secretary of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Director General of CSIR, Chairman and Director of IISc and 3 members of the Parliament along with 3 nominees from Union Government, AICTE and Visitor.
The IIT Council is followed by the Board of Governors from each IIT, next is the Director who is the executive as well as a chief academic officer of IIT. After the Director comes the Deputy Director. Director and Depuy Director are followed by the Deans of each institute, the Registrar, the Head of the Departments (HODs), Chairman of the Hall Management and President of the Student’s Council. The HODs govern the faculty members comprising of the Professors, Assistant, and Associate Professors. The Wardens in charge of the hostels are under the Chairman of the Hall Management.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STUDYING IN IIT
No doubt, IITs give the best standard of education that is a par with any foreign education and the IIT graduates are highly revered everywhere as they are considered to be a league of their own of the intelligent and brainy lot. During the last year of the course, many IITians get good campus placements and have a very secure career life. They deserve the good high paying jobs after going through a rigorous study regimen and emerging successful.
Acceptance in IIT is considered to be a privilege for select few who pass the entrance examination with flying colors. Thus, the pressure to perform throughout the academic career takes its toll on many students. There is constantly the pressure to score well and be a merit ranking student. Sometimes, students who are otherwise average but have performed to score and secure admission in IIT find it difficult to live up to that performance in the future and thus get frustrated when their grades start dwindling.
On top of this, the high charges of tuitions and IIT education affects their families too. So unless and until the student shows repeated good performance, his/her chances of any scholarships, preferred placements are low. This mounting pressure to perform takes its toll and we hear of many IIT students committing suicides due to frustration and fear of rejection. Education is important to take a person forward in life so that there can be a better future. However, learn to accept one’s shortcomings once in a while as no one is perfect and then this elite higher education will truly benefit the seeker.