Anil Tagga's Review On IIT Bombay - Indian Institute Of Technology - [IITB], Mumbai

Good remark is IITB is the best campus to stay and build a career fulfill the dreams and enjoy the student life to the fullest. Bad remark is Research quality should be improved as many of the faculties does not actively participate in building the research career. Faculties should also be evaluated for the quality of teaching and research. Placement for research scholars or industrial collaboration are very poor especially in basic science fields like biology,chemistry,physics and there is a need of interdisciplinary programmes to improve the quality of education and research.

I took GATE 2008 I scored 98.26 percentile in Life sciences with air 226. I opted this college because it was and is one of the top college in India for research. Also Nanotechnology is developing fast in other countries so IITB has introduced research centre for Nanotechnology which will have great impact in terms of technological revolution. After clearing the entrance exam i was selected for interview at the Centre for Research in Nanotechnology and Science. I had cleared the interview successfully to get the admission for Ph.D.

I would assess the course curriculum as 7 out of 10. In IITB Ph.D scholars have options to choose courses according to their research work. I had chosen courses from different departments like Material science,Biomedical engineering and chemistry. I had chosen courses related to interdisciplinary group including nanotechnology and Biomedical research. However I have given 7 out of 10 because there is no advancement in the course structure or improvement in the syllabus according to present knowledge. More interdisciplinary courses and collaborations are necessary to improve the standards of research.

Ph.D students did not have much internship opportunities. However in some departments there were many industrial projects for developing a new technology like in Electrical engineering students had collaborations with some companies who were working on patents. General stipend offered to me as a Junior research fellow was 16k and as a Senior research fellow was 18k. B.Tech and M.Tech students had large number of internship opportunities even with foreign universities like University of Alberta, Monash University etc.

Placement opportunities were best for B.Tech and M. Tech students. Only some of the Ph.D from engineering branches have good opportunities in industries related to core or non core fields. Science Ph.D students does not have much opportunity. Similarly pays were of decreasing order starting from B.Tech to Ph.D unless the job is of academic profession. Ph.D packages usually starts from 3 La to 10 La max per year Ph.D students have some opportunities in industrial R&D sectors of Biochemical,Mechanical or Pharma industries.

This is the important part which I liked most. IITB has given full freedom to students for conducting and participating in various cultural,sports and technical events. One of best event of IITB is Mood Indigo a big cultural fest where I had enormous opportunity to show my talents in public. It is the heart of IITB cult. Techfest is best in terms of technological advancements like robot wars,laser shows,racing events,Entrepreneur and scientific talks. Apart from these there were musical events like Surbahar,theatre fest,sports events like Inter IIT sports meet,yearly conducting General championship and PG sports and PG cult etc. These events allow students to develop lot of talents and skills.

It was feasible fee structure due to central govt policies compared to other universities. Total fee was around 33k for 6 months including food,accommodation,semester fee, campus bus traveling and other facilities which was worth of money. Ph.D scholars were provided with single occupancy rooms with every sunday room cleaning services were arranged. Mess food fee was 13k per month. Remaining 20k includes hostel rent,tuition fee, bus fee etc. However after course work also we had to pay tuition fee of 5k every sem which should have waived off.

I cleared the GATE exam and I got fellowship from the institute as Teaching Assistant-ship. I had to do 8 h per week duty as a TA for 5 years (till i get fellowship). I also got loan for laptop from IIT Alumni centre. IIT alumni gets lot of fund from past alumni students which was utilized for loan facilities and other activities too.

In my opinion campus life should have freedom to enjoy student life in a meaningful way without gender biasness. IITB campus hub is the best example for that. IITB has provided me to fully enjoy my campus life without any kind of restriction or politics. Gender ratio was 5:1 for male to female. There were always some workshop related to entrepreneurship,music,technical,dance etc were conducted every week. There was never any kind of sexual biasness was seen. The best part of IITB was all the activities, workshops,cult fest were organized and successfully completed by students themselves. Academic staffs never intervened in any of these programme which is usually observed in other universities.

As i mentioned earlier, hostel facilities were best facilities one can have. Ph.D scholars were provided with single room whereas others had to share two persons in a room. Average rentals were approx 1100 per month. There were enough toilets and bathrooms with daily cleaning facilities were provided. Hostels were built in modern outlook with underground big mess accommodating more than 2000 students at a time. All the hostels had well built in gym facility,sports equipments like Table tennis,tennis, badminton,carrom,chess,LCD TV,laundry washing machines etc and all these of no cost or comes under 23k per sem fee.

IIT Alumni is very much active in helping the needy students always. They always provided scholarships and also helped in getting the research funds. Being in touch with IIT alumni network even after leaving IIT has several benefits like IIT alumni provide a platform for entrepreneurship or starting the own business. Through alumni contacts its easy to get the job in same company through senior references. My alumni seniors conducted live sessions on campus placements and helped in facing the interviews.

It was not hectic in terms of course or exam schedules. However i had to do research work in the lab during the free time. But overall it was chilled out experience. After completing the course work I had to completely involved in research activities day and night if required depending on the type of experiments. Once in a year i used to get 15 day leave to visit my native place.

Faculties of IITB were highly qualified in terms of education and research background. Most of the faculties finished their Post doctoral research from world class universities outside India.