INPUTS FOR PG MANUAL UPDATE FROM PG STUDENTS

These are the inputs, suggestions and queries received from PG students through the form
circulated on 10.11.2021 by SPGC student nominees. Suggestions and queries that some students
orally discussed with us and that were discussed in the first SPGC meeting are also included.
And all these are divided into sub-topics based on what they are dealing with.
(Note that some of these issues have been addressed in the new PGARC report draft that was
circulated some time back. Nevertheless, we will try to get all these issues addressed and will
share our response in the near future. Some issues may even take months.)

A) Supervisors and DMC:

1. What to do if the student gets in conflict with their supervisor? Can the doctoral
monitoring committee (DMC) handle it? What other ways are there?
2. Can students have more than 2 supervisors?
3. Is it necessary for students to give co-authorship to their guides for the papers they write?
What are the explicit guidelines here? (Giving co-authorship to guides for their guidance
seems to be largely practised only in the Indian academia, not in the US.)
4. The role and duties of supervisors and the DMC towards their students need to be clearly
mentioned in the PG manual. The more explicit everything is, the better.
5. More transparent policies in the matter of academic evaluation by the DMC are needed.
Also with respect to comprehensive exams and SOTA seminars.
6. Supervisors who plan to go on sabbatical leave or retire should at least give an early,
transparent notice to their students before doing so.

B) Comprehensive exam and SOTA:

1. Flexibility in the period required for comprehensive exams, SOTA seminars and Open
seminars is needed. It may be reduced or extended depending on the student’s situation
and strength.
2. Is the comprehensive exam necessary for our admission to PhD programs? Our aim in
PhD is to carry out research in our area of interest and contribute to the knowledge
production in academia. If so, then why do we need to again read various subjects that are
not our areas of research just to clear another exam (even though we have already
finished our coursework).

C) Grades and courses:

1. Grade granularity: The points awarded to grades are only even numbers. Odd numbers
can also be given by introducing additional grades such B+, C+, etc.
 (From 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 to 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. Majority of MTech and MS(R) students want this.
Their reason is that they have only one year in their master’s degree to score good grades
and they have to use that for placements and higher studies. Because of this even grading
system, it’s very difficult for them to get good CPI.)
2. Can we have absolute grading scheme instead of relative grading scheme?
3. Currently, it is difficult for students to get S/X mode for audit courses in Pingala. What
can be done?
4. If a student has completed more courses than is required by their course requirements,
can they be allowed to drop one or two courses with low grades (including C grades) in
CPI calculation?
5. Can students who have received C grades be allowed to appear for improvement exams if
they want to improve their grades?
6. A Masters student can face termination if they accumulate 3 Xs or more towards their
thesis grades. A PhD student can face termination if they accumulate 8 Xs or more. Can
the threshold be increased?
7. Adding subjects after mid-sem to learn the remaining course contents. Is it possible?

D) Master’s degree and dual degree:

1. After converting from MSR or MTech to PhD, students want to exit with the original
master’s degree. What to do here and what rules to follow?
2. For students who have joined PhD and now want an MTech degree, what are the
conditions for writing the report? Also, can we use MTech report data in a PhD thesis?
3. After successful completion of a master’s degree in IITK, the student can apply for PhD
in IITK directly if a professor is willing to take them as their student. Can this be
allowed?
4. PhD students leaving their program may also be given an MS (MTech is the only option
now) based on their completed work. The rules for this are not clear in the PG manual.
5. Please make the rules in the PG manual more concrete and less ambiguous for dual
degree students since the existing rules cause confusion. Also, for Dual Degree students,
after finishing all the coursework mentioned in the master’s template, is it necessary for
them to do the PhD coursework (which new PhD students need to do) as well once they
are converted to PhD?
6. For MS(R) students, the current thesis submission procedure is not detailed. Can detailed
and clear steps be provided in the manual?
7. PhD students admitted directly after a BTech degree or BE degree need to complete 8
courses (72 credits) as part of their coursework requirements. Can an equivalent master’s
degree be awarded to these students after completion of their coursework (in addition to
the PhD degree that will be awarded after graduation)? A further requirement such as
working on a master’s thesis may be added.
8. Please allow PG students to go for summer internships.
E) Financial Assistance:

1. Any way to improve financial aid given to students who travel around for conferences,
workshops, etc., related to their research?
2. Can the financial assistance of MS(R) students be extended beyond 4 semesters? For
MS(R) students who are not project employees, can institute assistantship be provided for
an additional 6 months after the completion of 2 years?
3. What if a PhD student finishes their research and defends their thesis within 5 years? Will
they continue to get the stipend until the 5-year period ends?

F) Other general queries:

1. The termination policy of students in relation to poor academic performance in their early
semesters. At least two semesters or more should be given to judge their performance.
2. Can we have an introductory course for all research programmes that address questions
such as “what is research and how to do it”, “how to do literature survey”, “how and
when to publish our original research work”, etc.?
3. Technical English course for students who are weak in communication and writing.
4. Provisions for code of conduct and actions against academic indiscipline. Can they be
stated in the manual?
5. Can leave approval be done using Pingala? In that way, the number of leave days
remaining can also be kept in record.
6. Clear rules and elucidation may be given about Teaching Assistantship duties and what
role it plays in the PhD program. Relatedly, is it possible to provide a document or a
transcript mentioning the TA duties performed by a student during the course of their
degree?
7. Currently, a PhD student can make use of the provision of conversion from fulltime to
part-time only once. Can this be increased?
8. Provision of Paternity leave (in addition to Maternity leave) needs to be included in leave
rules.
9. As per the eligibility criteria for PhD in Engg., a student having a master’s degree must
have 6.5 CPI or above in that degree (in addition to having achieved first division in
bachelor’s degree and having JRF/95 percentile in GATE) for consideration. This is too
high because in universities and institutes where there is an absolute grading scheme, it’s
very difficult to score high grades. Sometimes even students who are well-qualified for
the PhD admission miss the opportunity because of this 6.5 CPI requirement. Can this be
reduced? (Other IITs like Madras, Bombay have only 6 CPI as requirement, or they have
no criterion for the CPI in master’s degree.)
10. Will any provisions according to the New Education Policy be included?
G) Specific program-related queries:

1. MBA IME: Is MBA admission for students from backgrounds apart from BTech/BE
possible?
2. Can MBA students be allowed to take UG courses?
3. Can the trimester pattern be followed for MBA courses?
4. MTech Aerospace: Too many thesis credits and lesser opportunities to take optional
electives. Can anything be done?
5. PhD BSBE: PhD students with MSc background need to do 6 courses (54 credits) for
their coursework, but those with MTech or M.Pharm backgrounds only need to do 4
courses (36 credits). Can this be reviewed?
6. PhD ME: PhD students in Mechanical Engg. with MTech background need to do 6
courses (54 credits) for their coursework. Can this be reduced to 4 courses (36 credits)?
7. MTech ME: Can the minimum CPI requirement be reduced from 6.5 to 5.5? There are
good courses that provide good knowledge, which is valuable in the market, but it is
difficult to get grades in these courses. Also, getting C grades causes a lot of stress.
8. External Registration Programme: Is it possible to add the following: Para 2.7.5:
Employer shall allow External PhD Student (who completed course work requirement
and joined back the employer) to visit IIT Kanpur for at least 2-3 weeks in each semester
to get the consolidation of research work done by him/her at his place of work and decide
future research work to be undertaken.
9. MSc-PhD Dual Degree Physics: After finishing all the coursework mentioned in the MSc
template, is it necessary to do 4 more courses (for 36 credits, which is what new PhD
students need to finish) once the student is converted to PhD?

H) Queries related to online semesters:

1. Please allow 2019 MS(R) winter batch students to pass with just a report instead of a
thesis. Several of us had resource constraints and we couldn't do our thesis work from our
home. Now it's very difficult to do all the thesis work once we are back on campus
because of the pressure from placements.
2. Please relax the minimum requirement for CGPA for PhD programmes to minimum
possible grade (Pass) for online semesters since the facilities are severely curtailed at
many places of students' residence. The minimum GPA requirements may be restored to
the current version when students are called back to campus.