Suicides at IIT-K
I just found out from [[http://ngupta.com|Nitin]] that there was [[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1514995.cms|another suicide]] at IIT Kanpur yesterday. There was [[http://in.news.yahoo.com/051130/48/61awr.html|another one last December]]. Its just a sad, sad day.
My heart goes out to the families of the deceased. But I can’t help but feel some disgust at the act of committing suicide. Specially if its over flunking a couple of courses. Sometimes it is just so important to realize the big picture in life and how often things that we are so worried about don’t really matter much in the end. But I’m none the wiser. I hope, everyone involved finds some peace.
Meanwhile, what really, //really// pisses me off is the rest of the student community. These smart asses are [[http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=53572|blaming the grading system]] at IITK. That just so much bull shit.
IMNSHO, I think IITK is one of the most transparent places I’ve ever seen in my life. The system is mostly flat, there is some red tape but nothing compared to government offices. Even the Director is easily accessible to anyone who wants to meet or voice some concerns. The grading system is even better: instructors are required to finish grading **within 72 hours** of the exam. Students can question the instructor, examine their transcripts and even request a re-grading.
How does the grading system lead to suicide anyways? There are exceptions to each norm. There will be some instructors who will be unfair. Just like there are always some students who break the rules. Life’s like that. Its not a reason to commit suicide. I hope the idiots making a hue and cry back at IITK realize this. Don’t try to fix something that is not broken.
Meanwhile, two suicides in less than 6 months at IITK is not a good sign. As they say, charity begins at home. Make sure you talk to your kids, try to get to //know// them. Ask him/her about friends in college. When your child is away from home, friends are the only support system. Frankly, I think the administration already tries to do a lot from their side — you have access to support groups, faculty counseling, student counsellors, and a psychiatrist to talk to if you should need one.
Anyways, I didn’t mean to offend anyone by this post. If I did, I apologize. Its just so frustrating to see young lives wasted like this.
The cry of “grading system is harsh” is wrong on multiple counts. One, except in rare case, the grade is awarded depending on the performance in multiple exams, presentations, projects. Unless one performs poorly across all tests, one is bound to flunk the course. That means, there are enough warning signals for the student to realize something is wrong with his/her performance.
My perception is most of the time, an “F” is awarded only in cases of academic dishonesty.
This is bad news….
The deaths related to life in academic institutions is directly related to the amount of pressure it exerts… and more often than not, either support groups dont exist, or are ineffective, because one doesnt try and make use of them.
Apart from other tips that you mentioned, I think communication is of utmost importance…I remember this incident of suciced bya fellow student back in the Masters days….those closre tyo him said he tried to reach out to the HOD a lot, but she was immune to his attemots…while after his death…the HOD kept saying “if only he had confided in me….”
A lot of times, signals are not picked up and the distressed students see no way out….
I really hope this stops, in all institutions..because it affects those who live on..in a big way too
*@chandni*: pata nahin yaar. I mean, in any system, *some* institutes are always going to be more competitive than others. Competition is nature’s way. We should try and teach people how to deal with it effectively, not succumb into something like suicide.
I agree, people should be more receptive to these kinds of things. Naturally, once something has happened, no one will want to share blame for it. Hence the indifference.
It is very disheartening to see such young people ending their lives. Makes me question the values that the family and society imparts! And whats worse is, more often than not, its for very frivolous reasons as failure in exams or love failure @ the age of 15.
It occurs to me that families should communicate more effectively with the children and teach them the stronger and bigger aspects of life, instead of adding onto the pressure. And most importantly monitor those people closely who become very quiet and reserved.
I have myself witnessed 2 suicides in the last 1 year and hopelessness and lack of communication seemed to be the cause in both cases.
“Even the Director is easily accessible to anyone who wants to meet or voice some concerns.”
I hope you studied in the same IITK in which Dr. S G Dhande was the director.
please update thrs been one suicide todaya and one last semester also!
“IMNSHO, I think IITK is one of the most transparent places I’ve ever seen in my life”
not now atleast…
*@divesh, akash*: Its sad to hear that the place has changed so much since I left. There is very scant information online about the suicide, do you guys know anything else?
dude…how much of an “insider” info do u possess before coming up with a discussion on the grading system tht is followed up in IITK?I think u have no clue.not tht i mean to justify nething…but a serious thought over writing something on such issues must be given.I can say tht u havent done tht.
Hi Diwaker,
Though I do agree with some things you have put down, here are some of my words:
http://rachit-reflections.blogspot.com/2007/04/suicide-at-iit-k_28.html
IIT Education System – Retrospect
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Case Studies 2
2.1 Concerned Professor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 Course Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.3 Who is to blame? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.4 Conflict of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 Suggestions 3
3.1 Responsibility of Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2 Supplementary Exams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.3 Spacing of Examinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.4 Role of Counseling Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.5 Summer Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.6 Declaration of Course Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.7 Autonomy of Professors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.8 Grading Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.9 Long Sighted View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.10 Hall Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.11 Faculty counselor within Department . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.12 Feedback Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1 Introduction
The Education System of IIT Kanpur has been developed with care and with the best possible inputs from the academia. But it is long time since this has seen a change, and in the current scenario, the system needs an overhaul. A number of suicide cases in the past few years puts a big question mark on the efficiency of the system and requires introspection.
The culture at IIT, through the years, has come to a state where it causes a lot of stress and trauma to a number of students. We, the students, feel that there are a lot of aspects which need improvement. We attempt to compose a short essay, which in no way is comprehensive; listing a few problems faced by the system and suggests some possible solutions. We also try to have a holistic view of the situation, and suggest a few radical changes which require a complete make-over. Some of the suggestions may seem a bit difficult to implement in a short span of time, yet in long run, we believe, they will definitely prove beneficial to the system as a whole.
Most of us feel that this is one of the best systems with some of the best faculties and researchers in the world available for our guidance. We realize that the onus of the 1
proper functioning of the system lies with both the faculty as well as the students, and both the sections of the system must continuously strive for the betterment.
We think that there are a few loopholes which need to be addressed immediately. We feel (as has been voiced a number of times) that the current style of teaching, kills enthusiasm and supports a grade-centric system. We – faculty and student body – must realize that all of us, collectively, are responsible for such state. We further feel, that grade F, more often than not, creates a traumatic situation for the student and creates hindrance in fruitful education system. We further, feel that the autonomy given to the professors should be moderated. We firmly believe that any system can survive only when all the stake holders have equal say.
We start by discussing a few real-life case studies, and also suggest some improvements. The cases are just representatives of the situations which can be improved, and in no way exhaustive. We further, list down all the suggestions and we invite you to have a critical analysis and to ponder over at the present state of the system.
2 Case Studies
In this section, we attempt to discuss a few cases which provide an insight into the flaws with the current system. We try to come up with issues on part of both student community and the faculty.
2.1 Concerned Professor
A course X has a class divided in a number of sections. In one particular section, a student is insincere in the course and the professor shows a deep concern towards the student. He sits along with him for some time and tries to find out the reasons. He sends personal mails to the student urging him to attend classes and makes sure that the student participates in the student activities and assignments and is genuinely interested in the overall improvement of student. The student also feels deep regard and respect for the professor and the concern shows up in his performance. A little human touch in the student-faculty relations goes a long way in improving the performance of the student. Moreover, effect is not limited to just that particular course, but the overall performance of the student improves. It is noteworthy that the student passed with flying colors. No student failed in this section but the performance of the other sections which had mechanical form of study was dismal.
There is an interaction between professor and the student but most of the times, the student feels shy in approaching the professor. A small gesture from professor can make a lot of difference.
2.2 Course Structure
In a course Y, a professor announces certain weightage (assigned to projects, assignments and examinations) at the beginning of the course. The assignments is given 20% of weightage, but towards the end the instructor eliminates its weightage completely. This leads to panic among the students, particularly the ones not doing so well in the course.
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As a repercussion, the students fare poorer in other courses as well. Since the incident happened in the last semester, it jeopardized the career prospects of many students.
2.3 Who is to blame?
Around 180 students are registered in a course Z. The professor announces in the beginning that he is touchy about attendance. He takes surprise attendance during the semester. He also announces that he is going to give F grade below 40% irrespective of the class average. In one of the sessions the professor also threatened the class by citing an example of another professor from another IIT who gave around 40% student F grades. In the end around 90 students (approximately 50% of class strength) gets an F grade. The important question is that if so many students can not achieve a satisfactory level, isn’t it a failure of the instructor as well.
2.4 Conflict of Interest
A professor of a particular course takes a surprise quiz one the day just before or just after the students’ festivals like Antaragni, Techkriti etc. There have been some rare cases in which there was a surprise quiz on both the days. During the orientation period on joining the institute, we are motivated by the Director’s speech to become a multi-dimensional personality. The incidents such as mentioned above demotivate students from participating in festivals and hinders their overall personality growth.
3 Suggestions
We finally present a list of suggestion which we believe, if implemented properly, can improve the situation radically. Some of the steps are quite easy to implement and will show the results in short time, but other, more radical, suggestions are long-term solutions and all of us together will need to show a commitment in improving the situation.
3.1 Responsibility of Students
One of the major reasons for the extreme step like suicide is lack of a support network, poor relationships with peers, and feelings of social humiliation. In system like ours which has a lot of competition, the humiliation of failing a course is enormous. The peers should extend a helping hand to such students and should ensure that he/she doesn’t go into depression. Counseling Service though helps such students, it’s the collective responsibility of the student community as a whole. Senior-junior interaction can contribute a lot in such case and we believe that the importance of grades needs to be reduced.
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3.2 Supplementary Exams
Many other IITs (including IIT Guwahati, IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi) have a system of supplementary exams which go a long way in helping the student cope up with the course, and reduce the tension that a student undergoes. For example the system at IIT Delhi allows a student to take two supplementary exams if he fails in the course, and is graded on the base of these. This goes a long way in reducing the tension associated with the exams and the grade F. Similar are the concept in other IITs including Guwahati and Bombay. If the system works well in these IITs, we feel that there are enough reasons to introduce them in Kanpur as well. Moreover, it is seen that the number of F’s in other IITs are quite less as compared to that in Kanpur and the performance of students (as measured by the jobs, admissions into IIMs and graduate schools, etc) is yet comparable in both the IITs.
Some of us might show a concern that this may lead to a bad practice among the students. A student may not study properly for an exam, because he knows that he has another chance. The apprehension that some students might use this as a way to study in the last few days is not entirely baseless. As a safeguard we may limit the number of courses a student can give supplementary exams for. This way, we will be able to tackle both the situations in a more responsible manner.
3.3 Spacing of Examinations and Dead period
We feel that organizing the end-semester examinations in a span of a week creates a lot of undue pressure among the students and in certain circumstances, a student has to write more than one examinations (even up to three) in a day. This has drastic impact on the performance in those courses. And since the end-semester examinations, typically, have more weightage, this leads to poor grades. Thus, we feel that the span of the end semester exams should be atleast 10 days and there should be atleast 4 days dead period between the last day of classes and the beginning of exams.
3.4 Role of Counseling Service
Most of us feel that the F-list should not be disclosed in public and the counseling service can individually inform the students. In such a way the counseling service can help in reducing the pressure and can help in handling the tension. It is also in a better situation to suggest further course of action to the student.
We have also felt that there is a lot of pressure from the side of parents, as they are unable to understand the grades in right aspect. They are not able to understand the meaning of such grades as students from other colleges get better percentage in their exams. Director Sir can make a point to discuss this during the inaugural speech.
Further, an informal student-faculty interaction can contribute enormously towards such cause. For example, a Professor can visit a hostel occasionally, or can invite students for an informal meet. Department can also organize informal parties occasionally, which would definitely improve the student-faculty interaction.
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3.5 Summer Courses
In recent years, there we have seen a tendency of courses not being offered during summer vacations. Courses offered during summers helps a lot of students with backlogs to complete the degree in time. In many cases if a student fails to complete degree in time, he loses his job as well.
3.6 Declaration of Course Structure
In some of the courses, the course structure declared at the beginning of the course is not adhered to later while grading. While, we agree, that this definitely helps in most of the situation where a Professor reduces the weightage of a component in which the students performed badly. Yet, there have been some incidences where such a step causes a lot of problems. Consider for example the case discussed in subsection 2.2, where a change in course structure caused widespread problems. We suggest that the course structure should
be properly defined at the beginning of the course, and if need arises to change it, a consensus must be arrived among the students and the professor.
3.7 Autonomy of Professors
As already discussed, the autonomy enjoyed by the professors allows him/her to mould the course according to his wishes. This results in a much better course design. Moreover, since he is best aware of the situation of the class he can take better decisions given a free hand. But there have been cases where this has lead to problems. We are aware of the competition among the Professors which lead to a harsher grading. Also, there have been situations where the Professors use grading as a tool to vent out their frustrations which may be due to low attendance (consider subsection 2.3).
We lack proper channels to address such situation, as is evident from the discussed case. We believe that a neutral committee can be set up to look into such cases, and has the authority to over-ride such decisions. We understand that there are certain limitations and an individual is not able to take absolutely correct decisions, but at times such decisions can go very wrong, and such a committee can be helpful in reducing such rare cases.
3.8 Grading Policy
We feel that the granularity of grading could be decreased so as to have a more uniform grading scheme. Like in most of the other IITs, we can as well have a grading structure of
the form A+, A, B+, B, C+, C, D+, D and F.
Further a few other kinds of grades can be introduced like W (Withdrawal) grade, like in IIT Delhi. A student can choose to withdraw from a course after first mid-semester exam if he feels himself inadequate or uninterested in the course. An approval by DUGC could be required before the student is allowed to withdraw.
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3.9 Long Sighted View
We strongly feel that the prestige system associated with many aspects of academics at IIT Kanpur is taking its toll. The humiliation of failing a course and getting your degree extended is huge and proper steps need to be taken to take care of it. We feel that such a step, as proposed here, is one of the most vital and can help in long term.
Instead of publicizing the B.Tech. degree as a four year program, we can publicize it as a 160-unit program and a suggestive median time (say 4.5 years) can be provided. Present system of having 5 or 6 courses in semester should be done away with, instead the student should have the option to take as many courses as he can afford in a semester. Thus a student has the flexibility to complete the degree at his own pace, and we feel that this will improve the level of excellence of students passing out of this institute. Further, such a system will try to solve the problem of the stigma associated with not being able to complete the degree in time. Such a radical change in the structure of the system might go a long way in solving the problems currently faced by us.
3.10 Hall Allocation
The current system of year wise distribution of hall of residence limits the socialization of the student to his batch only. Such a system promotes a higher level of competitiveness among the students, which gets to the extent of being unhealthy. Also, such a system introduces a concept of a 4 year degree which we are against. Instead, a system of Hall allocation where students from all the years share a hall will help eliminate a separate identity of year. In present scenario, a student staying back after the stipulated duration of the degree (due to some backlogs) feels highly isolated and a sense of inferiority complex creeps in.
A uniform distribution of halls of residence where students across batches live together, we believe, will contribute positively in minimizing the prestige system and foster a healthy society.
3.11 Faculty counselor within Department
The current system of assigning the faculty counselor can be improved such that the students of a particular department have their counselor from department itself. Since students who face any academic problems will get better feedback and counseling regarding particular courses. This is not possible if the counselor belongs to a different department than the student.
3.12 Feedback Forms
We believe that a good instructor who does justice to his profession is not just the one with all the academic excellence under his belt. But he is the one who along with his academic achievements likes to teach his students and feels concerned for their growth as well. Right now there is no incentive for the instructors to behave nicely towards his
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students. This can be arranged for by adding an Instructor’s Behavior part in the feedback form. It can have points like:
1. The instructor interacted in a friendly way.
2. The instructor is genuinely concerned about students.
3. Overall class environment was comfortable.
We want that this part should be given atleast 20% weightage in the assessment of the feedback form.
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This is with reference to suicide committed by Mr J.bhardwaj on 26/04/07 by coming in front of a running train.His head got detached from his body which were recovered in the morning at about 6 am.
Last year(April 2006) when Shailesh commited suicide Y2 batch students conducted many meetings and formed a list of reforms needed in the IITK system(posted above).These points were duly discussed in L7 with our honourable Director and he said he was himself champion and proponent of many points,but I have here over the course of 1 year seen that none of those points have been implemented.What happened to our demands and the promises made to us at that time??but again, i will keep my mouth shut..because this is a very “sensitive” issue…..are IITK students and alumunus so insensitive …….that any student discussion here will start with “ab kya kar loge yaar”……will we allow this issue to get buried unheard,even without caring to know what happened with J.bhardwaj,what all people are involved in this,did anyone motivate him for suicide,was really any professor involved in this issue?….IITK has come up with a new tradition of sending torn rotten dead bodies(preferably with head detached as in case of J.bhardwaj) of its own students to their parents,that too by flight…..my god this institute is so caring!!!!….and imagine how parents might be feeling when they get this “gift” in the form of their son’s dead body at their home….will we continue to send this gifts in future???? …IITK ppl are very busy……really….but then again I will keep my mouth shut…..
and above all why shud i be bothered….. has anything happened to me?no….did I get worse food? no …..did the internet speed slow down and my lavish surfing get affected ? no……did number of movies on LAN decrease?….no…is anyone disturbing my sound sleep?…..no..no… no…arrye kuch bhi to nahin hua hai ek ladka hi to mar gay hai……..to rehne de na yaar ,chal koi movie download karte hai aur dekhte hai ….”humein apne kaam se matlab rakhna chahiye,yeh sab to hota rahega”……
the only thing that has happened to us is that our souls are dead……..please laugh at me and call me stupid!!!
This is with reference to suicide committed by Mr J.bhardwaj on 26/04/07 by coming in front of a running train.His head got detached from his body which were recovered in the morning at about 6 am.
Last year(April 2006) when Shailesh commited suicide Y2 batch students conducted many meetings and formed a list of reforms needed in the IITK system.These points were duly discussed in L7 with our honourable Director and he said he was himself champion and proponent of many points,but I have here over the course of 1 year seen that none of those points have been implemented.What happened to our demands and the promises made to us at that time??but again, i will keep my mouth shut..because this is a very “sensitive” issue…..are IITK students and alumunus so insensitive …….that any student discussion here will start with “ab kya kar loge yaar”……will we allow this issue to get buried unheard,even without caring to know what happened with J.bhardwaj,what all people are involved in this,did anyone motivate him for suicide,was really any professor involved in this issue?….IITK has come up with a new tradition of sending torn rotten dead bodies(preferably with head detached as in case of J.bhardwaj) of its own students to their parents,that too by flight…..my god this institute is so caring!!!!….and imagine how parents might be feeling when they get this “gift” in the form of their son’s dead body at their home….will we continue to send this gifts in future???? …IITK ppl are very busy……really….but then again I will keep my mouth shut…..
and above all why shud i be bothered….. has anything happened to me?no….did I get worse food? no …..did the internet speed slow down and my lavish surfing get affected ? no……did number of movies on LAN decrease?….no…is anyone disturbing my sound sleep?…..no..no… no…arrye kuch bhi to nahin hua hai ek ladka hi to mar gay hai……..to rehne de na yaar ,chal koi movie download karte hai aur dekhte hai ….”humein apne kaam se matlab rakhna chahiye,yeh sab to hota rahega”……
the only thing that has happened to us is that our souls are dead……..please laugh at me and call me stupid!!!
dude, i dont know how the place was when u were here…..but right now, i do feel that the academic expectation to perform and peer pressure is quite high…people here respect you for your cpi and very little for other things….it hardly matters if u’ve got great quizzing knowledge, brilliant english communication skills and can play most sports very competatively…..at the end of the day, most students dont ask ABOUT you , they ask what my cpi is….and once they know my cpi, they dont bother with me any more……true, not everyone is like that….
coming to the grading system, i do think that it is not the best possible….all other iit’s have a 7 point or 8 point grading system, i.e grades of 10,9,8,7,6,5,4….while here in iitk, we have only 10,8,6,4….what happens is a guy can get so unlucky that his spi might drop by a whole lot for very few marks……avg cpi goes down and quite a few students come across as losers…
and u say it is great that the sheets r corrected within 72 hrs…..i wonder how many students were there when u were here???i feel correcting more than 500 papers within three days will lead to a lot of uneven correcting….especially in the end-sems. and it aint that easy to get some marks once u’ve lost them.
i do agree with u on the charity at home point….last year, 50,000 out of three lakh aspirants were from hyderabad…..the pressure to perform is extra-ordinariy high.kids go in for iit coaching from seventh standard itself, goddamnit.
Hi, Im currently in 3rd year.
And I completely disagree with your point of grading and liberality given to IITK professors in courses. Many of them use it for personal attack on students.
Much more of this is in this mail which is being circulating among the student community right now. This will clear much of ur doubts:
Our proposals :
1) Demand a public apology from the professor who sent out that
tentative F list thing. We should confirm the facts, then should sign a
joint petition demanding this and through the gymkhana or otherwise,
submit it to the DOSA, Civil engg dept, Director, and Deputy Director.
This is imperative as this is the only “action” that can possibly be
taken against these errant profs as seemingly, they have broken no rules
but those of the human heart. This will act as some kind of a deterrent
to Profs in the future when it comes to harassing students with threats
of F’s etc before the end sem even having begun! We should all be
strongly for this as only a united student body can force results.
2) Create a system of feedback for the professors, during the middle of
the semesters where the feedback goes to the DUGC/DOSA or some other
person, along with the prof. The “scale” grading, which we do on a point
basis, can be announced to the department, while the individual remarks
go directly to the prof.
Some higher authority than the professor even with regard to that
particular course and how it is conducted. Right now, the DUGC, HOD, no
body has the power to instruct the professor to improve anything related
to the course. There has to be somebody who will assure the student that
he would talk to the professor concerned about the problem. Again, the
identity of the student, if the student requires it, must be kept safe.
Such a system will ensure that more students frustrated with professors’
policies will go talk to the person/s concerned and will get some relief
out of talking to them. These people can even be people from the HSS
department who have some training in counseling, etc. It might be
impossible to hire counselors who can stay for the entire duration of a
semester and we also need the person entrusted this responsibility to
contact the department of the aggrieved student and to let them know
about the situation if it calls for it. These profs can also go directly
to the profs concerned and let them know that students are stressed out
because of their behaviour and they need to watch it. Something like
this needs to be put in place.
A general set of guidelines must be issued to all profs of all depts
regarding grading ,etc. Weird rules like no A below 80% attendance,F
below 60% attendance (this is what Prof Vinay Gupta had) should not be
made by individual professors. If the institute felt the need for such a
thing, it would have implemented this. So the instructors should be
issued specific directions on what they can and what they can’t do. For
instance, if its about attendance, the prof should at max be allowed
some percentage weightage for attendance but then again, the guideline
should mention a cut off! Shouldn’t be like Prof Anilkumar who announced
a 20% weightage for the morning lecture attendance (ESO 202) + another 5
% weightage for one class which had a probability of less attendance due
to 2-3 days before and after that day being holidays. (!!) First of all,
even this was against the rules as the grading policy has to be
announced at the beginning of the semester. These guys keep bending the
rules to their advantage. There has to be a check on this!!
3) Create the options for supplementary exams. They should be offered
for all the core courses, and be finished by two weeks from the main
exam ending.
4) Review the course templates!! Weed out the unnecessary courses,
reduce the syllabus of a few courses if the need be. Clean it up! Reduce
the two mid sems to one if the need be.
For instance, a CSE student doing a chemistry core course makes no
sense unless a particular individual is interested in the course! The
templates need to be more department specific. If that happens, we can
reduce the load per semester as we would have weeded a few unnecessary
courses from the template. That will give the student some breathing
space.
5) Classes shouldn’t be held at least for 2-3 days before the exam. On
one of the days in the week before the end sem exam, talks should be
held in all halls by professional counselors and they should be
available in the halls.They can be given accomodation in the hall
premises. Hire them for the entire week and the week of the exam.
In addition to this, a student helpline needs to be set up. Nobody is
going to call up professors on their phones in case of stress!!
6) Create a rule where the degrees are not extended for the purpose of
completing zero credit courses.
7) Prevent the professors from announcing warnings to all in the
department. Protect an individual’s privacy.
8) Set up a training course for instructors about how to teach the
course well, and how to interact with the students. Lack of interaction
many times leads to a professor not understanding the situation a
student is in. He might be facing personal problems which could be the
reason for his bad performance in a course. The profs should try to
interact more with the students to deal with such cases.
9) Finally, we would like to bring to your notice about a student who
has been hurt by a professor’s constant insults in class. He has decided
to leave this place as he can’t bear it any longer. He has already
communicated to the dean about his decision, we don’t know if he’ll
change his decision, looks like he is pretty decided. He is a bright
student, a KVPY scholar.
The prof would say things to him like “Go check your IQ”, “I can’t
believe the JEE let you through”, “You don’t deserve to be in IIT”, etc.
This student was already facing some personal problems. These taunts led
to high anxiety and he underperformed in the first mid sem. That only
worsened the prof’s attitude towards him. He came back strong. His
attendance was 36/38 even after all this! He got decent marks in both
mid sem 2 and the end sem and when he went to collect his paper, he
asked the prof a doubt.. And the prof’s parting words to him were “Leave
the Institute”. He has decided to do exactly that! We have been talking
to him and he says that had he been a tad weaker, we would have
witnessed one more tragic event. We want to speak out against this kind
of atrocious behaviour by profs who don’t respect the students. They
keep demanding for respect but give none. Its time to demand our share!!
Hope this makes your view a little more realistic if you are really concerned about IITK and its repute.
can anybody give any clue abt Mr.Bhardwaja’s death? Is it really sucide or murder? plz if anybody knows plz post the info.
can anybody say howmany sucides happened in IIT-K till now. can you give details also?
There have been 4 suicides in last 2 years.I dont have any idea of previous suicides.As far as cause for death is concerned no one can
say for sure what actually happened or what was the cause for such a
step.
Details:
Nov. 2005 :2nd year student of Mech. Engg. Dept. jumped from 6th floor of Faculty building hrs. before the CHM201 End semester Exams.
May 2006: Fourth year student of chemical engg. hanged himself just after grades were released.
Nov. 2006: Ph.D. student of chemistry dept. commited suicide.
April 2007: 3rd year student of Civil engg. dept. commits suicide during the end semester exams.
Just to inform u that another 1st year IITK student committed suicide on 18th April,2008 while end sems were to start from 21 april
I think its high time that people stop beating around the bush and come to the root cause.If you so called social sympathy donors think that an electrical engineering student of iitk is unable to tolerate academic pressure and hence deserves to die then you have complete liberty of carrying out genocides in virtually every educational institute of the country.i am also pursuing engineering and know what it takes to fetch electrical in iitk.Secondly don’t blame the parents because they are not committing some cardinal sin by expecting their children to do good.
Now the root cause-the one and only reason behind such extreme steps is irrational and lunatic mentality of some faculty members who are involved in designing the course structure in such institutes.In their quest of following educational pattern adopted by a handful of prestigious US universities engineering students are compelled to rote subjects like biology,humanities and thousands of functions carried out by an efficient manager under the banner of PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT.This story is not restricted to iits ,all copycats all following in.These are the very things that are responsible for sucking the juice out of students’ life and on top of that allotment of units to courses many times doesnot make sense ,grading system in most of the top engineering colleges is a complete bane.
for heavens sake donot say that uski majboori thi marna cause he couldnot endure academic pressure and all that rubbish…your opinion clearly indicates that your thoughts are moulded out of what gibberish you hear and donot have any relation with engineering by far.
I am going to be a father very soon. And I have already decided – come what may, I will NEVER-EVER let my son/daughter even THINK of going to IIT Kanpur. I think more than the faculty or administration, it is the attitude of its students that makes the place really stink. IIT Kanpur is full of nerdy bookworms who think it is correct to have rigorous grading system as it nurtures excellence. And they are so used to a life-sans-life thasuits their masochistic thinking to have pressure in their lives all the time. But I think for people who believe in colors, songs and dances of life, IIT Kanpur is quite close to what one calls “hell”. I think it is a system of, for and by psychos and we better beware before sending normal people to this “den”. I’m sure all psucho students and psycho professors really really think IIT Kanpur is India’s greatest technical institute (apart from that one little mathematical proof, what the f*** has IIT Kanpur produced in last ten/twenty years by-the-way. I think more than helping the nation, IIT Kanpur and its psychotic students are a load on the country’s economy).
I request the reader to take full offence of my words, but only if he likes IIT Kanpur.
When some one complains about too much pressure at IITs in India it just makes me laugh as the pressure students are under actually makes sure that only those with nerves to endure that pressure pass through and those who cannot take this much pressure dont really deserve to be studying there.
I dont think its just this pressure about performing well that can drive some one to commit sucide but on the other hand if it did push some one to take such drastic step then I am sorry to say they were not able enough or capable enough to be burdend with the honour of studying at one of the IITs be it Kharagpur or Delhi or Mumbai it just doesnt matter.
I am pretty sure those students who have commited sucide must have been showing traits well before they even appeared for IIT entrance exam and should have been provided with proper councelling. I suspect that their parents had a big hand in pushing them into such a state where they started believing that flunking a course is the end of the world.
I am a big fan of IITs and the geniuses they churn out every year have really amazed the world with their success across the globe.
Show me one multinational company who isint after hiring one of us guys…
Yea keep looking I am waiting….
Hi Guys,
We are from IITK and in our opinion there is no such academic pressure.
If u want to flunk in any course, u really got to be extraordinarily careless.
Most Students here dont spend time with the course content stuffs, but rather TV series, movies LAN Gaming etc. . Only very few ppl actually plat outdoor sports despite huge facilities.
the LAN stuffs take away major time, more than Lecture hours per day.
If they ever make even a bit of effort to take a look at the course even just a few days before the exam, its gonna be really very difficult to fail, althoug a D grade will be most likely in tht case.
Dr S.G Dhandhe is the real culprit .Before him IITK was really the best place .
There have been 9 suicides at IITK in the last 5 years. Do you think that such a number of suicides happened coincidentally or there is something about the IITK system that caused it?
And who is it that committed these suicidies? These are among the best students of the country.
And 9 is just the number of suicides. One wonders how many went through depression and prolonged loss of self-confidence.
The problem is not that some students do not perform. It is how they are dealt with after poor performance that matters. And I know what I am talking about since I did my BTech there. Today, with God’s grace, I am doing amazingly well in my career by all yardsticks but there was a time my confidence had taken a hit. I am certainly not going to recommend IITK to anyone.