The Education Minister of India, Mr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ addressed the topic of students admitted to postgraduate programs on February 4, 2021, in the parliament. These PG courses were offered in the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER) in the last three years. Moreover, the minister also shed light on the number of SC, ST, OBC and EWS students admitted to these courses. Category-wise data from 2017-18 to 2019-20 was presented for IISERs located in Pune, Kolkata, Mohali, Bhopal, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati and Berhampur.
The education minister on February 04, 2021, clarified in the Rajya Sabha that the 7 IISERs spread across the country offer only one postgraduate program. This program is the Bachelor of Science – Master of Science (BS-MS) dual degree in basic sciences. The basic sciences comprise Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Mathematics and Physics. Moreover, IISER Kolkata offers an additional PG program i.e., Master of Science (MS) in Space Physics.
Details were provided in the parliament about the total number of students admitted to the PG-level programs at IISER. The composition of SC, ST, OBC and EWS category students was also provided. Moreover, the education ministry gave detailed information about the total number of students who withdrew their admissions for PG programs. Their composition of SC, ST, OBC and EWS categories was also mentioned for the last three years i.e., 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
IISER Bhopal admitted the maximum number of students i.e., 296 students for the BS-MS PG program during the academic year 2017-2018. Out of these, 61 belonged to SC, 22 to ST and 82 to OBC categories. Out of 296, 6 students withdrew their admission from the institute out of which, 2 belonged to SC, ST and OBC each.
The same IISER institute admitted the maximum number of students in the subsequent academic year 2018-19. A total of 297 students were admitted out of which 50 belonged to SC, 24 were of ST and 75 belonged to OBC categories. A total of 41 students withdrew their admission for PG programs. 11 SC, 04 ST and 09 OBC were among those 41 students.
IISER Pune accepted the maximum number of students during the academic year 2019-20. There were 32 SC, 17 ST, 60 OBC and 11 EWS students who were a part of the 227 candidates accepted by the institute. However, out of the 227 students, 26 withdrew their admission out of which 4 belonged to SC, 2 belonged to ST and 10 belonged to the OBC category. All this information was presented in the parliament under the annexure attached to the document.
