Analysis Of PhD Candidates At India’s Top Five IITs

India, historically, has been famous for its academic excellence. Our research scholars, scientists and laureates in literature have proven their brilliance in respective fields for long. It is no surprise then, that even today many dream of having the highest academic qualification to their name - the PhD. Moreover to receive this honour from India’s most prestigious technical institutes , the Indian Institute of Technology is definitely a noteworthy achievement, which many may aspire but only a few finally achieve.

In the last three academic years till 2020-21, more than 2,000 candidates signed up for the PhD programme at the top five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country. An analysis of the last five years shows that on an average around 230 candidates could successfully complete the PhD programme every year. It means around 1/10th of the total candidates were successful in getting the PhD degree from top five reputed IITs.

There has been a steady increase in the number of candidates admitted to the PhD programme and the number of candidates who completed the programme in the last three years, except at IIT Kharagpur.

Careers360 has considered data of full-time and part-time PhD candidates registered at top five IITs. This data has been obtained from the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), by the Ministry of Education.

Pursuing PhD Programme: Top IITs

The number of candidates admitted in PhD programmes has increased in other IITs over the last three years, however IIT Kharagpur showed a 10 per cent decrease in the same duration.

Over 40 per cent increase in the number of PhD candidates is seen in IIT Delhi in three years since 2018-19.

Student Pursuing Full-time PhD In Top 5 IITs over 3 Years

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PhD Candidates Course Completion

Except IIT Kharagpur, the rest of the IITs showed an increase in the number of candidates pursuing PhD over the years. In terms of course completion, in the last three years the numbers have sagged for IIT Madras, IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur. While, IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur showed an increase of just seven and four per cent respectively.

Graduated Full-time PhD Student In Top 5 IITs over 3 Years (including Integrated Ph.D)

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Average Pursuing V/s Passed Candidates In Full Time PhD Programme

Every year these five IITs award just one PhD candidate with a doctorate degree for every 8 to 10 PhD candidates pursuing the programme.

For our analysis, we’ve considered the data from 2018-19 to 2020-21 for the average of pursuing candidates. While the graduating average is taken from five years data from 2016-17 to 2020-21.

PhD Candidates

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PhD Candidates In Part-time Programme

In 2020-21, IIT Delhi had the highest number of candidates pursuing PhD programmes in the part time mode while IIT Bombay had the highest number of graduates.

IIT Kharagpur does not have a single student admitted in PhD part-time programmes in 2020-21.

PhD Candidates

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Average Pursuing V/s Passed Candidates In Part-Time PhD Programme

For part-time PhD candidates, the graduating numbers are better than the full-time PhD candidates. Here, for every one graduating student there are, on average, four to 11 PhD candidates.

The average of pursuing candidates is taken from three years data from 2018-19 to 2020-21. While the graduating average is taken from five years data from 2016-17 to 2020-21.

PhD Candidates

It should be noted that the number of PhD (full-time) candidates graduating every year is lower than the new joinees for the same programme. A very few PhD candidates actually complete the programme and get the doctoral degree, in comparison to the ones pursuing it.