Practical Training
Mohit and Anvesh give you the lowdown on the status of the PT policy for the third year batch
On the 19th of December 2007, the Senate, which is the policy-making body of the Institute and comprises all full-time professors, passed a resolution to change the institute PT policy. It was earlier required that a student would undergo at least eight weeks of compulsory practical training after two and a half years of study in top-class industrial or research institutions. The new policy stated that “a student would undergo at least eight weeks of compulsory practical training only in Indian companies and research institutions.”
DepartmentNo. of students Number placed in companies through Dept. Other internship details Aerospace
40 13 companies Foreign/IISc/DRDO. Due to shortage of PTs, some students had to accept whatever was available at zero stipend
Chemical
90 37 -
Civil
75 20 20 foreign interns
CSE
18 Foreign
Mechanical
95 70 Most students placed in companies
MEMS
85 23 companies
This was adopted as the policy by the Institute back then, but because the then third year batch (batch of 2005) were halfway through their process, it was decided to implement this from the next batch, the batch of 2006. The institute functionaries had a rigorous plan of following up this change in policy to deal with the extra number of PTs required. Alumni and industry spearheads were to be contacted. Presentations and representations were to be made. And the transition was to have been seamless.
It is clear now, though, that there was not sufficient follow up on this plan. Third year students were told that they were not allowed to apply for foreign internships and that was it. Some protests came from the side of the students about the deal being an unfair one, with them being the losers. The institute responded by promising to ask/request all faculty members to use their contacts this one time and help the students find PTs.
The institute, by now, had implicitly admitted the fact that there had been implementation issues and that based on pure logic, the new policy should have been revoked. The counter-argument given, however, was that of the institute image suffering because of this flip-flop. Of course, the fact that the idea of professors asking for PTs was an impractical one was impressed on the authorities.The existence of ‘good’ companies has been another issue. Even when foreign interns were allowed, all the students were not placed with good companies, as is evident from last year's stats (see table). Having to arrange for about two hundred odd extra PTs in good companies this year was always going to be a challenge. The stats for the current third year batch reflect this fact.
Then again, the batch of 2005 had an effective ‘free-for-all’ while the batch of 2007 have optional PTs, on top of minors and greater elective options. So the fact that this policy was being implemented for one batch alone was something not quite logical.
The final nail in the coffin came from the swift change in the global economic scene. Overnight, banks went bankrupt and liquidity became an issue. The tight conditions forced corporates the world over to shed jobs and delay new projects. Calls made for internships are mostly ignored and meet with an apologetic no, whenever acknowledged.
The issue was discussed at length in a meeting of all the Deans during the Diwali holidays and it was decided that the issue will be returned to the Senate, since the Senate alone can cancel out or modify its decision. A meeting has been called for the third of December.
Mohit Sharma and Anvesh Shah are third year students of the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Departments respectively. They can be contacted at mohitsharma07@iitb.ac.in and anveshsh@iitb.ac.in.