IIT Bombay’s liberal arts programme for engineering undergrads

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• LASE programme at IIT Bombay
• How can a student get admitted to the LASE programme?
• Why could the program not commence in the past two years?
• What’s next for LASE?

Why in news?

• In 2021, IIT Bombay announced a liberal arts programme called ‘LASE’ for its undergraduate students admitted via JEE Advanced.
• Touted as the first-of-its-kind in the country, the programme was supposed to give the students a chance to customise their degree as per their interests.
• Two years since the launch, however, the programme has not found enough takers to begin operations.

LASE programme at IIT Bombay

• About
  • LASE stands for Liberal Arts, Social Sciences, and Engineering, and was a one-of-its-kind multidisciplinary program launched by IIT Bombay in 2021.
  • It was aimed at giving the undergraduate students a chance to move out of their respective engineering departments at the end of first year, and customise their degree as per their interests.
• Degree to be awarded after completion of the course
  • The students under LASE would graduate with a Bachelor of Science at the end of four years in one of the following:
    • Natural Sciences;
    • Engineering Sciences;
    • Social Sciences;
    • Art and Design.
  • The institute promised to assign each student with a faculty advisor to help them choose and customise their coursework.
• Idea behind the programme
  • The idea behind the programme was to give greater flexibility to students who may be interested in disciplines other than their respective streams of engineering.
  • It aimed to provide an alternative of a choice-based education to a student at IIT Bombay, as opposed to a predefined branch of engineering.
  • The programme also came on the back of the New Education Policy advocating for multidisciplinary education.
    • The recently released school curriculum framework, following from NEP, allows students to choose subjects across streams of Science, Arts, and Commerce in Classes 11 and 12.
• Difference from a conventional BTech degree at IIT Bombay
  • Students were free to enroll in courses from other departments at IIT Bombay earlier too.
  • However, the number of such courses was limited by the requirements of their respective streams of engineering.
  • Under LASE, however, a student could take any number of courses from any department at IIT Bombay.
  • An undergraduate student pursuing an engineering degree at IIT Bombay graduates with a Bachelors of Technology (BTech) at the end of four years.
  • A student admitted to a LASE programme would graduate with a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree.

How can a student get admitted to the LASE programme?

• Students could migrate to LASE from their respective streams of engineering at the end of first year, after having gone through the selection process.
  • Students at IIT Bombay begin studying the courses under their respective branch only from second year onwards, and study common subjects in their first year.
• The programme was to select about 30 students, who would then take up courses from different departments at IIT Bombay.

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Why could the program not commence in the past two years?

• The programme was not met with as much enthusiasm as its makers had hoped for.
• As a result, the number of students who made it to LASE in 2022 and 2023 (3 and 6 respectively) were less than the minimum number required to run any course at IIT Bombay i.e., 10.
• There are number of reasons for the low levels of interest:
  • apprehensions about a BS degree in LASE instead of a traditional BTech degree from an IIT,
  • the risk aversion towards something novel and unfamiliar, and
  • the dismissal of liberal arts as a concept.

What’s next for LASE?

• IIT Bombay has discontinued branch changes from next year onwards, owing to the suicide of a first-year-student earlier this year.
• In this context, how LASE will function is yet to be decided.

Q1) What is Bachelor of Science?

A Bachelor of Science (BS) degree is an undergraduate degree that focuses on the technical aspects of a field. It’s often a requirement for competitive jobs and can open doors to many careers and further study options.

Q2) What is Bachelor of Technology?

A Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) is an undergraduate degree program that covers all fields of engineering and technology. The program is designed to provide comprehensive knowledge of: Mathematics, Engineering principles, Computer applications, Programming, Electronics.

Source: Why IIT Bombay’s liberal arts programme for engineering undergrads has not found takers