IIT-Delhi working towards implementing new education policy in upcoming session

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, is moving towards the implementation of National Education Policy 2020 for the upcoming academic session. It has also sought feedback from all its academic units on the report submitted by NEP Committee. 

“As an Institute of Eminence, IIT Delhi is fully cognizant of its role in the timely and proper execution of educational policies. The institute is carefully examining the structure and nature of its existing programmes that could provide a strong foundation for introducing the NEP 2020 directives. Over the last months, a committee for the implementation of NEP 2020 has carefully considered all higher education-related guidelines. Currently, feedback on the committee’s report is being sought from all academic units for further deliberation,” said Professor V Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi. 

IIT has taken several initiatives to form new departments with multi-disciplinary teaching and research programmes in lines with the broad objectives of NEP 2020, Rao said. As a part of the initiative, the institute has created departments named ‘Department of Energy Science and Engineering’, ‘Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP), ‘Optics and Photonics. The institute also started a School of Public Policy, School of Artificial Intelligence, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Design, which are all highly interdisciplinary in nature. 

Every PhD student admitted in this academic unit is supervised by two or more mentors from different disciplines, said IIT officials. Senior officials said the institute already offers multiple inter-disciplinary undergraduate programmes and others such as a B Tech. A programme in Energy Engineering will start in 2021-22 and Bachelor of Design in 2022-23. It is further planning to introduce multidisciplinary programmes at post graduate level. “To make options more flexible, as envisioned in NEP 2020, a committee has been constituted to examine and make recommendations for implementation,” said officials.