IITs, IIMs dropouts on the rise; 2000 students in 2 years

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) are tough nuts to crack. Admission to these renowned institutes in the field of engineering and management require months of dedicated hard work, regular study and eventually clearing various levels of screening. But not every student joining the institute walks out of the institute with a degree in hand.

The dropout rate of IITs and IIMs has risen significantly over the past two years. According to the data released by the institutes, about 2000 students have dropped out of these institutes during 2014 to 2022. While IIT-Delhi leads the tally for IITs, IIM-Raipur tops the charts among all IIMs.

Around 699 students have dropped out of IIT-Delhi between 2014 and 2022. IIT Kharagpur follows the lead with a dropout of 544 students and IIT-Bombay with 143 students. 

Students pursuing PhD courses have the highest dropout tendency in the IITs owing to the long tenure of the PhD course. Only a marginal number of students drop out due to poor academic performances.

On the other hand, IIMs are on a constant rise over the years when it comes to student dropouts. Around 37 students dropped out from 2003 to 2005, 69 students in 2006 to 2008 and eventually 104 students dropped out in between 2014 to 2022. 

Contrary to IITs, poor academic performance has been cited as one of the major reasons for student dropout. This is because all students are on the same platform after joining the institute.

IIM-Ahmedabad has introduced a buddy programme to tackle the situation, wherein each first year student is mentored by a student of second year. The institute also conducted a three-week orientation program and organized coaching classes for academically weak students. This programme was later replicated by several other IIMs. IIM Indore also introduced a similar programme where faculty mentors support academically weaker students.

An IIM faculty member mentioned that students, other than those belonging to reserved categories, also faced difficulties in coping with the curriculum. Bakul Dholakia, former director of IIM-A had mentioned that reserved category students can be easily identified among others on the first day. But it’s at the graduation dinner when all differences are eliminated.