IIT Kharagpur will broaden the list of students from the BTech programmes who will be called back to the campus following complaints from third-year students that poor Net connectivity at home was preventing them from attending online interviews for internships.
The institute had earlier this month decided to recall 500-odd final-year BTech students to the campus because connectivity woes at home were preventing them from attending online placement interviews.
Now, around 250 students from third year are being recalled to address the problems arising out of unstable connectivity, an IIT official said.
The dean of students, Dhrubajyoti Sen, said around 750 students from third and fourth years together would reach the campus at the end of October.
“They will self-quarantine for seven days after arrival. The list of the returnees has been expanded as some third-year students have been added following an appeal from the technology students’ gymkhana (the students’ association on the campus),” Sen said.
An official of the institute said students were doing internships from home because of the pandemic. In some cases, companies are sending problems to the students or giving them assignments to solve over digital platforms.
“Students are required to attend interviews online as part of an internship programme,” he said.
Internship is a must for engineering students. When they appear in job interviews, prospective employers ask the students about their internships.
If the connectivity poses a challenge, the internship will remain incomplete and that will hamper the job prospects. Apart from 750-odd BTech students, around 1,400 final-year MTech and MSc students will start arriving on the campus in November.
