I think majority of the students clear the tough academic program and pass out. Some students find it difficult to clear all the hurdles. During my two year stay at the Institute; I have realized that the Institute literally wears you down and your performance reduces as semesters pass unless you are a real smart chap.
Still many feel they could have done better; many downsize their expectations; and many just focus to get out with a degree. I here will not take up the academic pressure as a reason for driving the students crazy; but emphasize others issues. I feel poor academic performance is a symptom that forces the students to take the extreme step.
We should work to make the institute predictable, lively and smooth in terms of living conditions. I personally think we should not blame academic pressure for the extreme behavior. We should identify the conditions which demotivate students and remove those conditions. My advice would be to work on the physical infrastructure to find out if they are up to the mark or not. We can perform comparative study of various campus facilities available in renowned institutions and IITK and streamline our facilities accordingly.
1. In my opinion, Counseling Services do not have sufficient expertise to handle the delicate cases. Full time staff should be employed. The psychiatrists hired are of poor quality and they don’t have any idea of the dyanmics of an academic institution like IIT.
2. Group of alumni should come forward and assure the troubled students and help them find a job even if they do not get the requisite degree. This initiative can reassure such students, and prevents the undesired mental agony of securing a job. It may help them perform without fear.
3. The Institute outside academic building is highly unpredictable. They should work out to smoothen the quality and services of mess, canteens and stationery shops. One of the major concerns I was having at the IIT was their proposal to privatize the staff working in mess and other similar areas.
4. The quality of staff should be ensured to a certain degree. Upon shifting the staff management to private contractor; a degree of uncertainty creeps in, they (contractors) are interested in their profits only. During my stay, I have seen various new faces in many canteens working as part time labor from time to time making IITK canteen appear like highway dhabas. There was a worker who was driving rickshaw in daytime and also working in mess. The point is that Institute should develop a system to retain a good number of staff to work outside the academic building (in the hostels, canteen etc.) of the prestigious institute. Or Institute should create a body which can ensure quality in staff members and dispose the concerns of the students in this regard. The matter should not be entirely left to the contractor in this regard as is the current practice out there.
5. The institute should teach and spread the information about healthy Ergonomic Practices as students day and night work with computers, laptops etc. From my personal experience, I can say that the Institute Computer Centre is not very well ergonomically organized. A lot of things can be done in this regard with the help of experts and lessen the wear and tear of student community.
6. We should also study the data on the basis of hostel, program, place, specialization etc, which do well to hammer out any conclusion if feasible. We should document the successful student, their working habits etc to inform the rest of the community. We should also document the risky time table, behavior etc which can create imbalance and lead to deficiency in the academic performance.
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