Opportunities
Ph.D.
One can join the Ph.D. program at IIT Bombay under various categories listed below.
- Teaching Assistant (TA)
- Most of the candidates are admitted under teaching assistant (TA) category. At present, department of Civil Engineering admits about 15 candidates every year. Out of 15, usually 2 to 3 candidates are in Transportation Systems Engineering (TSE) group. Candidates under TA are paid stipend every month.
- Research Assistant (RA)
- In IIT, most Professors have different projects from which they can support full time Ph.D. students. An RA candidate is expected to work on the project from which money is paid. In this category, the project topic can be the Ph.D. research topic; thus candidate may not have any say in selecting research problem. However, in some cases, the Ph.D. topic can be different; but then student has to work on two problems.
- Quality Improvement Program (QIP)
- This is a very convenient program initiated by the Government of India for teachers in UGC recognized colleges. Under this scheme, the candidate takes leave for 3 years and pursue full time Ph.D. at IIT Bombay. The candidates get QIP scholarship from the Government of India. Additionally, most government colleges give full salary during the leave. Some colleges offer half salary. The candidate is usually required to sign a bond with their college. Not all private colleges let their teachers avail this scheme.
- Part time
- Not all private colleges are interested in sending their teachers under QIP program. Additionally, there are limited QIP seats every year. Teachers can apply for part-time Ph.D. program. An employee of any government or private organization can also apply for part-time Ph.D. program. This is also called self-finance category. It is necessary to take leave for at least one semester to complete course work. Once the course work is completed, the candidate can go back to his/her parent organization and meet the supervisor on regular basis. Often the expectation from the parent organization are high and it might become difficult to manage on two fronts. This is specifically true with the person working in private industry. In addition to the first semester leave, the candidate is expected to take leave of about one to two months every year.
If you are interesting in pursuing Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering and wanted to know more, shoot me an email with your latest CV.
M. Tech
Appearing for GATE exam is necessary for M. Tech. admission in IIT. Very small number of students are admitted under Government of India's QIP category and sponsorship category, where GATE score is prefered but not mandatory. Students graduating from IITs with CPI of 8.0 and above can be admitted with TA to both M. Tech as well as Ph.D. without GATE score. All India level examm, GATE is conducted by IITs on the second Sunday of February month every year. The M. Tech. admissions are primarily based on the GATE score. Some IITs admit students based on only GATE score. At IIT Bombay, written exams and interviews are conducted by the most departments. TSE group shortlists the candidates for written test based on GATE score. The cutoff for year 2010-2011 was 500 for general category students and 450 for OBC. The candidates qualified in the written exams are invited for interviews. About 12 to 14 students are admitted every year.
B. Tech. and Dual Degree
Admissions to B. Tech. program are purely based on the national level JEE exam. Earlier department of Civil Engineering used to admit about 80 student every year. With the recent OBC quota the yearly intake is about 120. Dual degree is 5 years B. Tech. and M. Tech. integrated program.