Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur - Administration

Administration

IIT Kharagpur shares a common Visitor (a position held by the President of India) and the IIT Council with other IITs. The rest of IIT Kharagpur's organisational structure is distinct from that of the other IITs. The Board of Governors of IIT Kharagpur is under the IIT Council, and has 13 members that include representatives of the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa, in addition to other members appointed by the IIT Council and the institute's senate. Under the Board of Governors is the institute's director, who serves as the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT. He is aided by the deputy director. Under the director and the deputy director are the deans, heads of departments, registrar, president of the students' council, and chairman of the hall management committee. The registrar is the chief administrative officer and oversees day-to-day operations. He is the custodian of records, funds, and other properties of the institute. Under the charge of the heads of departments (HOD) are the faculty (full-time professors as well as those of associate and assistant status). The wardens of hostels are placed under the chairman of the hall management committee in the organisation.

IIT Kharagpur receives comparatively more funding than other engineering colleges in India. While the total government funding to most other engineering colleges is around Rs. 100–200 million (US$ 2–4.5 million) per year, IIT Kharagpur gets nearly Rs. 1,300 million ($ 30 million) per year. Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding by industry-sponsored projects. IIT Kharagpur subsidises undergraduate student fees by approximately 80% and provide scholarships to all M.Tech. students and research scholars to encourage them to pursue higher studies. The cost borne by undergraduate students, including boarding and mess expenses, is around Rs. 90,000 ($ 2,000) per annum. 35% of undergraduate students are given additional financial support based on personal need and economic background, with their annual expenses being nearly Rs. 45,000 ($ 1000).

The academic policies of IIT Kharagpur are decided by its senate. It consists of all professors of the institute, and administrative and student representatives. The senate controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations and results, and appoints committees to look into specific academic matters. The teaching, training and research activities of the institute are periodically reviewed by the senate to maintain educational standards. The director of IIT Kharagpur is the ex officio chairman of the senate.

IIT Kharagpur follows the credit-based system of performance evaluation, with proportional weighting of courses based on their importance. The total marks (usually out of 100) form the basis of grades, with a grade value (out of 10) assigned to a range of marks. For each semester, the students are graded by taking a weighted average from all the courses with their respective credit points. Each semester's evaluation is done independently with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) reflecting the average performance across semesters. The medium of instruction is English.