The current internship policy puts several dual-degree students at a considerable disadvantage. Most companies (especially non-core) coming to campus for internships do not open to third-year dual degree students, since they generally intend to identify potential candidates for PPOs, offered almost exclusively to pre-final year students. And when dual-degree students do enter their pre-final year, the PT cell does not allow them to register, since they are mandated to spend their fourth-year summers working on their DDP.

Given the importance of internships and the disadvantages the dual-degree students have to face, there was a proposal to change the dual-degree policy and allow interested students to take up internships after their fourth year. The previous GSAA-UG, Hrishikesh Baviskar, had raised this issue with the Undergraduate Curriculum Review Committee (UG-CRC) last year, where he suggested including internships as a part of the dual-degree curriculum itself. However, the committee is already working on various reforms (such as the introduction of new courses) to be implemented in the next academic year. Hence, the UG-CRC has said that it will be unable to consider this issue at the moment.

The current GSAA-UG, Ayush Dahale, plans to work in tandem with the Placement Team and propose reforms at the next meeting of the Undergraduate/Postgraduate Programmes Committee (UG/PGPC), scheduled to be held towards the end of July.

Insight will be in regular contact with the concerned student representatives and will update the institute populace as soon as we get further information about the status of this proposal.

For a deeper dive into the issue, head over to the links below:

https://issuu.com/insight-vol13/docs/14.1

https://www.insightiitb.org/the-case-for-4th-year-internships-2/ (Access through IITB VPN)