IIT-M to have 50% subjects as elective

Children of IIT-M alumni look at pottery at the institute’s global reunion on Friday

To provide more flexibility to students at the Indian Institute of Technology, Ma­dras (IIT-M), the institu­te plans to allow students to have 50 per cent of their subjects as elective so that th­ey could select a larger nu­mber of subjects they liked.

In an interaction with the institute’s alumni on Fri­d­ay, IIT-M director Prof. Bh­askar Ramamurthi said, “The idea is to provide a st­udent with an opportunity to select 50 per cent of the subjects he likes to pursue.”

Elaborating on other fut­ure plans, the director ex­plained that the institute planned to combine classroom study with the online education system and self- learning.

“We have joined hands with Nasscom to offer computer science engineering though a massive open on­line course platform to students of all engineering colleges in the state and also in the next phase of the Nati­onal Programme on Techn­ology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) we will broadcast lectures live online,” said Prof Ramamurthi, who gra­duated  in electronics engineering from IIT-Madras in 1980.

The institute had started construction of a 700-room ladies’ hostel, which would be the largest accommodation facility at IIT-M, the director pointed out.

“In our rev­ised master plan we have made sure that we would only demolish old buildings to construct multi-storeyed ones to preserve the ecology of the campus,” he added.