Panel is to focus on the first year students, among whom academic stress seems to be a major problem.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay devised a distinct committee to inspect ways and solutions to reduce the academic stress on the students with prime focus on the first year students. The decision comes after an interim report submitted by a panel investigating the suicide of Darshan Solanki, who was a first year student in the same institute. The report cited declining academic performance as a probable reason for his demise.
The panel comprises of professors from several departments in the campus and will research into means for reducing academic stress on the first year students. This stress is believed to be affecting the confidence of the students in the first year, and further has an impact on them during their remaining academic years on the campus. Thus, this creates a need to intervene the matter in the first year of the course.
The new panel will not limit its efforts to students on the reserved category, but will also extend its services to students in other categories such as students with disabilities and others. The committee is expected to submit its report within a time span of three weeks. Subsequently, the recommendations will be submitted before the senate for its approval. The new changes will be applicable from the new academic batches next year, while there are no changes to the current batches. The administration, however, made some major changes to the curriculum of the present batch by including various non-core engineering subjects such as entrepreneurship, management and humanities, among others, to provide a broader academic experience.
Darshan Solanki was a first year student who committed suicide by jumping from the seventh floor of hostel 16 in the campus on February 12. This happened after a day his semester exams were completed. His family had alleged that caste based discrimination on the campus made him take such a dire decision.
