IIT-B admission: Math Olympiad qualifiers eligible for UG course

Entry into the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) will no longer depend only on Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) scores. Starting this year, select students who wish to pursue an undergraduate degree in mathematics at IIT-B will be eligible for one of six seats if they are on the Indian National Mathematical Olympiad (INMO) qualified list, 2019.

These students will have to appear for an entrance examination conducted by the mathematics department of the institute before being accepted. Such lateral entry could soon be allowed for admissions to specialised courses at the institute.

“Instead of JEE, if someone has performed well in the National Olympiad for mathematics and approaches us, they will have to appear for an entrance exam and their performance will determine their entry to the course,” said Subhasis Chaudhuri, director, IIT-B. He added that this type of lateral entry will help students who do better in certain subjects than others of JEE to be able to master a particular subject at IIT-B.

Chaudhuri on Thursday also discussed a new course that IIT-B is currently designing, on the lines of liberal arts.

“The academic pressure at IIT-Bombay is a lot and sometimes students can’t handle it. Therefore, we are looking at introducing Liberal STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] as a program,” he said, adding that the institute has already set up an expert committee to work on its implementation in the near future.

“If students want to specialise in a particular field, they are free to do so, but if they want to study a variety of subjects from different departments, or new subjects like music or appreciation of arts, we want to be able to give them such options,” said Chaudhuri. The committee will also look at collaborations with other institutions if needed.