The Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) currently offers Ph.D admissions to students with a qualifying Master’s (M.Tech or M.E or MS) or Bachelor’s degree (B.Tech or B.E) in the relevant field. In order to attract fresh and talented students with bachelor’s degrees, many institutions, including IITs in the country, have started various Dual Degree programmes such as MS(R) + Ph.D and M.Tech + Ph.D, etc. Such Dual Degree programmes are well received by various industries and educational institutions in the recruitment of their faculty in comparison with a candidate having a Ph.D degree directly after a B.Tech or B.E degree. Many departments of IIT Guwahati have been successfully running the above Dual Degree programmes. In view of the various advantages of the above Dual Degree programmes, the department of mechanical engineering has introduced a Dual Degree (M.Tech + Ph.D) programme with five specialisations in M.Tech to students having a B.Tech or B.E as their qualifying degree. The proposed dual degree programme is in line with the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP-2020), with a provision for exiting the programme with a M.Tech degree.
1) Department of Mechanical Engineering offers five specializations to the students of Dual Degree (M.Tech + Ph.D) to obtain their M.Tech degree in (a) Machine Design, (b) Fluids and Thermal Engineering, (c) Manufacturing Science and Engineering, (d) Aerodynamics and Propulsion, and (e) Computational Mechanics. This programme is offered only to students who have B. Tech or B.E in relevant branches of Mechanical Engineering and who would like to pursue both M.Tech and PhD degrees in the department of mechanical engineering at IIT Guwahati.
2) The Dual Degree (M.Tech + Ph.D) programme offered by the department (ME) shall be governed by the Master’s + Ph.D degree ordinance of the institute.
3) Students of the Dual Degree (M.Tech + Ph.D) programme are admitted in ME department only in the Regular Category in every July session of the year. A student seeking admission to the Dual Degree (M.Tech + Ph.D) programme should have a valid GATE Score. Admissions for these students shall follow the admission rules of the institute for regular Ph.D candidates.
4) At the time of filing the application against the institute’s PhD admissions’ advertisement (July session), a candidate needs to opt for the Dual Degree (M.Tech + Ph.D) programme. Candidates who have not opted for this programme and apply directly to the PhD programme are not eligible to enrol in the proposed Dual Degree. Similarly, candidates (with B.Tech or B.E as qualifying degree) who apply for PhD admissions in the December session are also not eligible to enrol in the proposed Dual Degree and hence they do not get the M.Tech degree. Such students then can have B.Tech or B. E + Ph.D degrees.
5) A student admitted to the Dual Degree (M.Tech + Ph.D) works on a full-time basis in the institute and receives an assistant-ship from the institute or any other recognized funding agency.
6) Admitted students of the Dual Degree (M.Tech + Ph.D) programme shall follow the ordinances of the Ph.D programme and other rules of the institute.
7) The maximum duration of the Dual Degree (M.Tech + Ph.D) programme is seven years from the date of admission. After successful completion of the defence examination, the student will be awarded both the M Tech and Ph.D. degrees.
8) Students in the Dual Degree (M.Tech + Ph.D) programme must do the prescribed course work for three semesters. The requirements for the course work will be a minimum of 12 PG-level courses with a minimum aggregate of 72 credits spanning over the three semesters. Please refer to Annexure-A for a detailed course structure of the department of mechanical engineering in various specializations. After successful completion of the prescribed course, the students are permitted to begin their Ph.D work as per the ordinance of the institute. After successful completion of the Ph.D, a student will also be awarded M.Tech degree in the specialization in which he/she does the prescribed course work as mentioned in the Annexure-B.
9) Exit Policy from the Dual degree programme and award of M.Tech degree. Awarding Master’s degree only: A student can discontinue the Dual degree program and leave the institute with M.Tech degree as per the Master’s + Ph.D ordinances which is as follows: After successful completion of the course work, comprehensive examination, and SOAS by the student, should the Doctoral Committee (DC) feel that the progress of the student is not satisfactory at the time of the first annual progress review, the DC may recommend the submission of a master's thesis, suggesting the volume of work to be completed for the master’s degree. The student will submit the suggested master's thesis and defend the same. The procedure for the submission of a master's thesis and the conduct of an oral examination are as per the relevant clauses of MTech/MDes/MS Ordinances. In that case, the student will receive only the master’s degree as per the enrollment. The department invokes this option only in the rarest of rare cases.