These IIT’s Have Done Away With The Option Of Branch Change, Know Why

To reduce student stress, six Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have eliminated the branch-change option available to students after their first year. This increases the total number of IITs that have stopped this practice to nine. The branch-change option at IITs permits students to transfer to a different engineering stream at the end of their first two semesters, given they achieve the required Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) score in their first year. Each branch at every IIT usually has specific cut-off scores to accept students from other streams.

Beginning this year, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Dhanbad, IIT Dharwad, IIT Mandi, and IIT Bhubaneswar have ceased the branch-change practice. Previously, IIT Bombay, IIT Hyderabad, and IIT Jammu had discontinued it in 2023, 2021, and 2018, respectively. This has been done reportedly to reduce the pressure on already stressed-out students. Experts have noted that although nearly 50 per cent of new students wish to change their branch, only 10 per cent manage to do so. Typically, a student can apply for a branch change at the end of the first year if their CGPA is above 7.50 (general category) and they have earned more than 32 credits by the end of the first academic session. Additionally, the branch change is granted strictly based on merit, determined by the CGPA at the end of the first year.

To fulfil the criteria, numerous students spend the majority of their first year secluded in their rooms or libraries, deeply engrossed in their studies. The limited number of available seats and the high CGPA requirement intensify the competition for students. Consequently, many students miss out on participating in fresher activities, joining clubs or groups, engaging in extracurricular activities, attending college festivals, and spending time with new friends. Experts believe this can negatively impact students, especially since most engineering students have already spent at least the last two years of their schooling focused on passing the JEE Main and JEE Advanced exams.