Get both engineering & management degrees from IIT-B

MUMBAI: For long, the marriage of the engineering and management degrees, especially from a premier institute, was considered the passport to a successful career and high salary. The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay has now decided to allow engineering aspirants to pursue management alongside. It's the first IIT to make such a change. About 41% of the class of 2006 graduates from IIT-B took up managerial jobs, namely in finance and consultancy. Also, in case a student hasn't managed to get a seat in the coveted computer science and engineering or electrical engineering courses, there is another chance. The student can take up these courses alongside his core area as an additional specialisation. All this is possible from this year as the IIT-B recently revamped its academic year requirement by reducing the mandatory credits for the Bachelor of Technology programme from 330 to 252, thus allowing students to squeeze in a minor area of their interest during their stay at the Powai campus. So, after the first year (beginning third semester), students can choose from a range of 17 minor courses, including management, computer science, electrical engineering, environmental science engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, aeronautical engineering, civil engineering and statistics. What's more, minor programmes are available in pure science areas like physics, chemistry and maths. Apart from minors, students can pursue an honours degree, or take up a BTech with honours along with two minor courses. The same combination is offered to the students pursuing five-year dual degrees. IIT-B academic dean S Biswas said his team found that there was a "general decline in academic interests of students". Biswas's report was cleared by the IIT Senate recently. It reads, "The students' psyche has seen large qualitative changes, especially over the last decade. The present-day student is driven by career ambitions right from the time of admission itself. Many of them are probably working harder than what their counterparts did 20 years ago." But the catch is that the students will have to fight for every seat. They will be unable to opt for either scheme unless they clear all their backlogs.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Get_engineering__management_degrees_from_IIT-B/articleshow/3334846.cms