LASE Program

Liberal Arts, Sciences and Engineering (LASE) program was introduced by the Centre for Liberal Education (CLE) at IITB last year. The program gives the students an opportunity to explore their interests during their undergraduate studies and build their own path. The following article aims to bring out information regarding the changes made in the program compared to last year. We also share answers to some common questions that students may have, to help them make an informed decision about changing their branch to the LASE program.

For more information regarding the program, the students may follow the mentioned links.

Website of CLE: https://cle.iitb.ac.in/

Previous year’s Insight Article – LASE Interview: Prof Anush and Prof Anurag: https://insightiitb.netlify.app/blog/blog1.html

WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR THE LASE PROGRAM?

All undergraduate students who complete their first year in 2023 will be eligible to apply for a branch change to the LASE program. Students from the Industrial Design Centre (IDC) are not eligible. This is because the institute only permits branch changes for students who have been admitted via JEE Advanced.

PROCEDURE FOR ADMISSION

A form has been floated by the CLE department (link mentioned below), and all the students who are interested in the LASE program shall fill out the form. There will be no tests and interviews for admissions this year. All the students who fill out the form will be considered eligible candidates for the LASE program. Note that being eligible does not guarantee a seat in the program. When the official procedure for Branch Change begins, the top 30 students who clear the Branch Change procedure (namely, preference order of branches filled by a student, preference by CPI, and 25% exit criteria from a department) will be admitted to the LASE program. Once you fill the form and become eligible, only then you can see the LASE option in the branch change portal.

Note: Since the branch change policy has been removed for the future batches of students, tests and interviews will resume next year.

Google form link: https://forms.gle/r6J6v61MeDoBA3We9 (Deadline: Friday, June 23rd at 5pm)

MAJOR CHANGES IN THE PROGRAM

Two major changes have been made to the structure of the program.

1. Last year, the program required that the 5 core courses (8-credit courses with tutorials, earlier called Foundation courses) should be completed by the student in the second year itself. This compulsion has been removed. The new structure requires that the students complete these core courses by the end of their third year (that is, in semesters 3, 4, 5 ,and 6). This is needed as a part of the institute policy which demands that all the core courses should be completed before the final year. Seminars and the Final year project continue to remain a requirement in the program.List of core courses: https://cle.iitb.ac.in/foundation-courses-3/
2. Earlier, the students were required to declare their specialisation by the end of the second year. The faculty felt that students should explore their interests in their second year so that they can make better informed and thoughtful decisions for their academic journey. Hence, the need to declare specialisation by the end of the second year has been now removed. Students have the freedom to take any number of courses from single or multiple categories, namely Natural Sciences (NS), Engineering Sciences (ES), Social Sciences (SS), and Art & Design (AD), throughout the program. The specialisation will be decided at the end of the final year.Course Structure: https://cle.iitb.ac.in/concentration-electives-2/

WHAT DEGREE WILL THE STUDENT RECEIVE AND HOW WILL THE SPECIALISATION BE DECIDED?

• At the end of the program, students will be awarded a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in one of the following: Natural Sciences (NS), Engineering Sciences (ES), Social Sciences (SS), and Art & Design (AD) or < Custom Concentration > (e.g.- B.S. in Physical Biology, B.S. in Healthcare Engineering).
• If the student has completed 40% NS (equivalent to 10 courses), 30% ES, 20% SS and 10% AD courses, then the student will be awarded B.S. in Natural Sciences.
• If the student has completed 40% NS and 40% ES courses, and the rest 20% comprises SS and AD courses, then the specialisation will be decided based on the final year project. If the project is more inclined toward ES, then the student will be awarded B.S. in Engineering Sciences.
• It is a student’s choice to pursue courses either from multiple categories or a single category for the entire program (for example, 100% NS). Among the courses offered within a category, a student may choose to do courses only in a single field, like Physics, or from multiple fields, like Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.
• The student has the freedom to explicitly pursue theoretical courses, or a mixture of theoretical and laboratory courses.
• There is a cap of 5 courses per semester including the core courses.
• A student is allowed to pursue a minor, and the minor courses will not count towards this cap of 5 courses in a semester.
• Currently, there is no provision for honours.

WHO WILL GUIDE THE STUDENT THROUGH THE PROGRAM?

“There is no definite structure in the program. In place of structure, there is guidance.”– Prof. Anush Kapadia, Associate Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences Department, and faculty in IDPC

An initial matching of students and faculty is done, based on the student’s initial interests. The faculty advisor will then guide the student regarding the courses and aid them to explore interests in their field of interest. The faculty advisor may also connect the student with other faculty (from within CLE or other departments) for better and more exploratory guidance.

If the interests of the student change at any point in time during the program, the student can always approach a different faculty guide. There is no compulsion that a single faculty advisor will be with the student for the entire program.

Link: https://cle.iitb.ac.in/faculty-advising-as-core/

GRADING

A student who takes a course, will be subjected to the grading policy of that course implemented by the instructor for that course. Hence, suppose they pursue an elective from the mechanical engineering department, the student will be graded relative to the students doing B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering.

Only the grading for 5 core courses comes under the authority of CLE professors.

HOW CAN THE STUDENT BE SURE ABOUT THE FUTURE PROSPECTS?

Here are two graphs showing the percentage of students who take jobs in their respective fields (in which they have completed their undergraduate degree) in India and the US.

The graph for the US shows that less than 20% of students who completed their undergraduate in STEM fields, ended up in a job that wasn’t related to their undergraduate majors. On the contrary, the bar graph for India shows that for a majority of branches, more than 60% of students go into non-core fields.

In India, there is a significant skill gap between the students’ undergraduate majors and the jobs that they take up after graduation. This brings us to an important question: Whether a student’s undergraduate degree helps them to land a job in their field of interest?

A person will perform better at their job if they are passionate about the work they are doing (find purpose in their work) and are confident in their skills (motivated to improve their expertise). Students who spend the majority of their time studying a field of their interest are expected to be better than students who studied it in their spare time, while spending the majority of their time studying their core field as a part of their undergraduate requirement. Students who have cleared JEE Advanced have good reasoning and analytical skills, and this is the reason that despite studying non-core fields in their spare time, they are able to secure non-core jobs completely unrelated to their core major. But the data shows that the latter is far from an optimal solution. In CLE, a student may then opt to take up courses as a part of his undergraduate and gain expertise in single or multiple fields of his interest, along with assistance from expert faculty. The LASE program offers this opportunity to students to explore their fields of interest without succumbing to the burden of undergraduate requirements that do not match their interest or aptitude.

For any queries, you may contact: office.cle@iitb.ac.in

FURTHER LINKS

• Article – Placements, internal ‘brain drain’ and academic life of undergraduates at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay: https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/124/02/0155.pdf
• Article – College Majors and Careers: Job Relatedness and Compensation of 1992–93 and 2007–08 Bachelor’s Degree Recipients 4 Years: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018163.pdf
• Article – ‘Deeply concerned over engineering students pursuing non-core jobs, it’s a waste of resources,’ says IIT Madras director: https://indianexpress.com/article/education/iit-madras-director-v-kamakoti-engineers-taking-up-non-core-jobs-is-a-waste-of-resources-8657696/
• Non-fiction book – Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – by Daniel Pink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive:_The_Surprising_Truth_About_What_Motivates_Us