A total of 8,154 students enrolled in the first batch of the first-ever online BSc degree in programming and data science at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Madras. As many as 1,593 students from an arts background and 3,450 students from science and commerce backgrounds have applied for the engineering courses.

This includes 1,922 candidates for women and 6,232 candidates for men across India. These students will register for courses at the foundation level, which will be offered from January 2021. Almost 400 hours of live sessions to help learners' learning experience. Most of the students have applied from Tamil Nadu with 1,037 applications followed by Maharashtra and UP. Among qualified candidates, most were under the age of 20 years.

The course has no age limit and students who have passed class 12 can also take it up. Students can exit with a certificate after completing a foundation-level course and after a year, one can get a diploma, and on completing three years, a degree will be awarded. The course is divided into six semesters. UGC has recently passed an order allowing students to pursue online or distance mode degree along with a full-fledged degree course, thus, students who are enrolled in degree courses can also apply. This was the first-degree programme with various exit options as offered under NEP. It was launched by the Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal.

While the course was held online, the exam or assessment was done in-person. A total of 20,396 learners were eligible to write the qualifier exam, which was conducted on November 22. Four weeks of refreshing yet intense content, three engaging assignments, and one scrutinizing exam closed out the qualifier process, the IIT informed. “We are glad to know that nearly 30 per cent of the learners who have applied for the qualifier process are working professionals from IT, banking, manufacturing, finance, law, healthcare, marketing, and other sectors,” said Prathap Haridoss, professor in-charge, IIT-Madras online degree programme.

The application process for the second qualifying exam has begun. Students may fill the application form to enrol in the second qualifier process, upload the required documents and pay the application fee of Rs 3,000. The fees paid will give access to four weeks of course content for the qualifier training process as well as the qualifier examination. The Last date to apply is 6th February 2021. The second qualifier process will start in the first week of March 2021.