IIT- B PhD Students To Get a First-Hand Industry Experience

Mumbai: The Indian Institute of Technology- Bombay (IIT-B) has decided to introduce internships for its PhD students from the coming academic session. The decision has been taken with the purpose to expose students to the industry and to make them market-ready. In addition, a post graduate (PG) internship cell has also been set up to coordinate all the activities in this regard.

According to a survey conducted by senior doctoral students, almost 90 % of the institute’s PhD students had said ‘industrial collaborations through internships’ should be included in the PhD programme to improve academic and research output. Also, following the findings, a proposal was mooted around four months back and was approved last week. However, internships for MTech students is currently under consideration.

VSK Murthy Balijepalli, general secretary, Academic affairs, post graduate programmes, IIT Bombay has said that the institute, so far, had practical training or internship for its Btech students. However, there was no formal system of internship for the PG students. The PG students were allowed to go for exchange programmes in universities abroad or they would mostly work on the research projects coming to the institute through the Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre (IRCC) under their respective thesis guide’s supervision. But the whole system was very adhoc.