The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are set to undertake a major revamp of their MTech and PhD programmes to better align engineering education with rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and evolving industry needs. The decision was taken at a meeting of the IIT Council, the apex coordination body of the 23 IITs, held in August last year after a gap of over two years.

The Council noted that opportunities offered by MTech and PhD programmes are currently underutilised. One key concern highlighted was the declining interest of BTech graduates in pursuing MTech in India, mainly due to limited specialisations and a lack of structured internship opportunities. To address this, the Council emphasised making industry internships a compulsory component of MTech courses.

Among the major proposals is the introduction of a dual-track MTech programme — one stream focused on industry engagement and the other on research. The Council also suggested expanding multidisciplinary and blended-mode MTech programmes, as well as product-based MTech courses that do not require academic paper publications. All IITs have been directed to redesign their MTech curricula within one year, based on their institutional vision and needs.

The Council also discussed rethinking the education system in light of AI-driven changes in curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and research, with IITs asked to outline concrete reform steps over the next two to three years. It further explored making the JEE Advanced exam adaptive to reduce stress and improve assessment quality.

On doctoral education, the Council deliberated repositioning PhD programmes as drivers of innovation and global competitiveness. Proposals included a project-first PhD model, networked PhD programmes with global universities, doctoral academies for mentorship and career development, and performance-based monitoring of PhD supervision.