What changes has Dr. Rajeev Sangal introduced in IIT (BHU) Varanasi since he became its Director ?

Dr. Rajeev Sangal introduced many prominent changes in IIT (BHU) Varanasi. One among them is 85% attendance rule according to which it was made compulsory for every student to maintain minimum 85% attendance in every subject and if a student fails to do so then his/her grades would be decreased in the exams. Not only this, if the attendance would fell below 65% then that student would be awarded a Z grade in that particular subject.

Although the rule was good, but it was introduced without consulting the student bodies. Many students with their good track record fell short of attendance and for some students from 4th year, the situation became even worst. It affected their job offers and resulted in the nullification of their placement offers. All these situations led to the famous student’s movement in IIT BHU “The Pen Down Movement” which started in 2014 and resulted in students boycotting their mid-semester examinations. Finally, the student bodies and the administration came into several dialogues and the problem was sorted to some extent.

He also changed the clearing of backlog rule and reduced it to a maximum of 3 per year. Also, there were many severe security issues during his tenure as a director but this news was often suppressed. He didn’t encourage the student’s involvement in TPO activities. Dr. Singhal also made compulsory 50 hours of sports classes per semester for students from 1st year in order to increase student’s fitness in the college.

He also took some prominent steps to improve the academics at IIT BHU like he appointed an Undergraduate Curriculum Review Committee (UG-CRC) to make a curricular framework for all UG programs (UGD/IDD/IMD) and also did set up an Alumni Cell to strengthen the alumni network.