IITs to offer multidisciplinary courses, working in line with NEP 2020

In conjunction with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which stressed on diversity, IITs have decided to step beyond the technicalities of engineering and offer multidisciplinary courses to its students. The curriculum will expand and circumfuse into social sciences, arts, philosophy, architecture including many others.

There exist some older IITs which offer courses in humanities and social sciences. However, since the NEP 2020 made its headway, there is a larger need to redress the issue of offering a multidisciplinary course, which lies at the heart of the new policy.

Different initiatives to incorporate diversity

It is expected that moving beyond non-engineering courses and emphasizing a diverse curriculum can help students in their higher educational fields. The initiative can be clearly seen in the introduction of two novel papers in this year's GATE entrance examination. The papers are Environment Science and Engineering; and Humanities and Social Sciences.

IIT Guwahati's initiative to open a medical school, a management school and dissect the possibilities of broadening its horizons into architecture, arts and philosophy is highly remarkable. T.G. Sitharam, who is the Director of IIT Guwahati reflected on the bachelor's degree in design that the institute offers and remarked on its aim to branch out subjects such as performing arts, ancient and medieval languages, architecture and so on.

Besides this, IIT Guwahati has planned to follow what had been decided as a part of its academic framework. According to this set-up, it has resolved to start a centre for linguistic studies and technology, a centre for Sanskrit, yoga and Indian languages and a centre for energy and rural technology.

More flexibility between different streams

The NEP 2020 has stressed on the urgency to make different streams more flexible and reduce the rigidity amongst them. In this multidisciplinary approach, IIT Delhi has chosen to set up a 'School of Public Policy', while IIT Madras is all set to offer its students a bachelor's degree in Data Sciences that will have multiple entry and exit systems.

V.K. Tewari, the Director of IIT Kharagpur remarked in a social media post that they are already working on making the curriculum diverse by offering research programmes, micro-specializations and micro-credits that are interdisciplinary in nature. 

To read more about the changes brought in the education sector, you can adlso see -

• What does the NEP 2020 mean for you?
• What makes IIM Calcutta’s Advanced Programme in Data Sciences stand apart?
• IIMs ready to make their spaces more inclusive and diverse
• IIT Kharagpur invites students to learn Data Analytics
• IIT Delhi combines education with innovation to boost homegrown initiatives