A ‘Term’porary Change: The Modified UG1 Academic Year Plan

“Organization. Clarity. Ambition. Sanity. Long ago, the four states lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Coronavirus attacked. Only the human mind, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed it most, it vanished.”

The education system worldwide has taken a huge blow due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It has become a logistical nightmare for institutions to take classes and exams online and to accept new admissions, especially for the recently graduated batch of 2020. This situation has led to several delays in the process of conducting entrance examinations and general uncertainty about the prospects of obtaining a seat in college.

But what about IIIT? The pandemic has forced the second session of the JEE Main to take place in September instead of the initially planned April session. The Non-JEE admissions were delayed too, taking place much later than normal, in August. This ‘Non-JEE’ medium of admission includes the UGEE, DASA, SPEC, Olympiad/KVPY modes. The JEE Main was conducted between the 1st – 6th of September, with the JEE Advanced taking place on the 27th of September. The counselling process for the JEE mode students begins in the third week of October, following the announcement of the Round 1 results on the 12th of October.

The college has decided to take the new batch of 2020 into two different sections (i.e., JEE mode and Non-JEE mode), each of which will have a different schedule and structure for the first year. Since the students joining via JEE mode will be joining relatively late, they will have extra coursework per term and increased pressure to complete the same, compared to their counterparts who have joined much earlier. 

This ‘multithreading’ of the first year into two different sections, each with their own academic plan, has resulted in the academic year’s restructuring for the new 2020 batch. Instead of the conventional two semesters, this year has been divided into three terms, containing fewer courses than the traditional semester. As for the first term of UG1 section 1, the freshers will be covering only three courses, namely C-Programming, Real Analysis/Discrete structures, and a brand new course called “Introduction to Computing Technology”. The structure of the first year for UG1 Section 1 is as follows :

Term 1: 14th Sep 2020 – 5th Dec 2020

Term 2: 10th Dec 2020 – 10th Mar 2021

Term 3: 22nd Mar 2021- 30th Jun 2021

The academic plan for UG1 Section 2 is yet to be announced but their year will also consist of three terms. These plans are tentative as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

The new course, popularly abbreviated as ‘ICT,’ is being taught by Prof. Rajeev Sangal, Prof. PJ Narayan, Prof. Jayanti Sivaswami, and Prof. Aftab Hussain. It aims to explore the world of computer science and electronics by using a smartphone as an anchor, deconstructing the most crucial elements, and highlighting their significance. This course is mostly theory-based, with a handful of assignments and quizzes for assessment.