National Institute of Technology, Durgapur

The campus spans 187 acres (0.75 km2) and is one of the oldest academic campuses in India. The main entrance is located on the eastern end of the campus, facing Mahatma Gandhi Road. The institute's academic facilities are located in the eastern half of the campus; these include the department buildings, laboratories and workshops, lecture halls, computer centres and the central library. The campus has separate buildings for the departments of Computer Science engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering, management, Chemistry, Biotechnology. Each department has its own library, in addition to the central library, which holds more than one lakh resources including books, periodicals and journals in print and electronic format. A new lecture hall complex named was inaugurated as a part of the institute's campus development plans, and it currently serves for the undergraduate students. The old Academic complex which has several departments and is currently used for the academic classes and lectures for undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students.

NIT DGP Campus Front Gate

The newly constructed Administrative building with modern amnesties is one of the institute's landmarks. This building houses the administrative offices and also the offices of the director and deans.

Central Library

NIT Durgapur has a modern central library with more than two and a half lakh of documents consisting of technical books, reports, standards, compact disks and back volumes of journals. The library also provides air-conditioned and Wi-Fi enabled reading halls. It is situated opposite to the High Voltage Laboratory. The library is an institutional member of DELNET (Developing Library Network), American Center Library, Kolkata, National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), and Current Science Association, Bangalore. It is also a beneficiary Member of INDEST-AICTE (Indian National Digital Library in Engineering, Science & Technology) Consortium, which provides Desktop Access to high quality e-resources (online journals) like IEL Online (IEEE/IEE Electronic Library), Springer Verlag's Link, Proquest, ACM journals, ASCE, ASME, Nature Magazine, Indian Standards (Intranet version) and ASTM journals & Standards etc. It has a collection of several thousand E-Books on computer science (published by Springer).[17]

Organisation structure of National Institute of Technology

The President of India is the ex officio visitor of all the National Institutes of Technology (NITs). The National Institutes of Technology Council (NIT Council) works directly under him and it includes the minister-in-charge of technical education in Central Government, the Chairmen and the Directors of all the NITs, the Chairman of University Grants Commission (India), the Director-General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Directors of other selected central institutions of repute, members of Parliament, Joint Council Secretary of Ministry of Human Resource Development, nominees of the Central Government, All India Council for Technical Education and the Visitor.[18]

Below the NIT Council is each NIT's Board of Governors. The Board of Governors of each NIT consists of the chairman and ten members, which include government, industry, alumni and faculty representation.[19]

The Director serves under the Board of Governors and is the school's chief academic and executive officer. Academic policies are decided by its Senate, which is composed of some professors and other representatives. The Senate controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations, and results. Senate committees examine specific academic matters. The teaching, training, and research activities of various departments of the institute are periodically reviewed to maintain educational standards. The Director is the ex officio Chairman of the Senate. The Deputy Director is subordinate to the Director. Together they manage the Deans, Heads of Departments, Registrar, President of the Students' Council, and Chairman of the Hall Management Committee. Deans and Heads of Departments in NITs are administrative postings rather than career paths. Faculty members serve as Deans and Heads of Departments for limited periods, typically 2 to 3 years, then returning to regular faculty duties. The Registrar is the chief administrative officer and overviews day-to-day operations. Below the Head of Department, are the various faculty members (professors, assistant professors, and lecturers). The Warden serves under the Chairman of the Hall Management Committee.

National Institute of Technology, Durgapur has the following departments:[20]

Engineering

Department of Biotechnology

• Computer Science and Engineering
• Electronics and Communication Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Chemical Engineering

Inside Main Campus

Sciences

• Physics
• Chemistry
• Mathematics
• Biotechnology

Other major departments

• Computer Applications
• Earth and Environmental Studies

Allied departments

• Humanities and Social Sciences
• Management Studies

The NIT Durgapur's Department of Management Studies (DoMS) is one of the oldest business schools in India. It offers a Master of Business Administration programme. They offered Dual specialisation in Marketing, Finance, Business Analytics and IT Consulting, Human Resources and Operations. DoMS Curriculum is designed with inputs from industry experts, faculty from IIM's and other reputed B-Schools.

Admission to the undergraduate programmes is highly competitive and is based on the rank secured in the Joint Entrance Examination (Main). Candidates must also secure at least 75% marks in the 12th class examination, or be in the top 20 percentile in the 12th class examination conducted by the respective Boards. For Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes students, the qualifying marks would be 65% in the 12th class examination.[21][22] The examination is considered to be one of the toughest examinations in the world and the high school science students who clear the examination with top ranks generally opt NIT Durgapur as their choice for admissions in undergraduate programmes. NIT Durgapur follows the reservation policy declared by the Supreme Court of India, by which 27% of seats are reserved for Other Backward Classes, 15% for Scheduled Castes, and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes. The institute also accepts foreign nationals through scholarships awarded by the Government of India, and non-resident Indians through an independent scheme known as Direct Admission for Students Abroad that uses SAT scores.[23]

Admissions to the postgraduate programmes are through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering for the Master of Technology (M.Tech.) and Master of Science programs (taught and research),[24] and through NIMCET for the Master of Computer Applications (M.C.A) program.[25] Admissions for Master of Business Administration (MBA) program are through the Common Admission Test.[26] Admissions to the Doctorate of Philosophy programmes are based on the written tests followed by personal interviews conducted by the institute.

The institute awards Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) degrees in nine engineering disciplines. As of 2019, the annual intake for the B.Tech. programmes was over 1000, with a student-faculty ratio of 25:1.

The B.Tech. and B.Arch. degree programmes are four and five years long respectively. Courses are allotted a number of credits according to their importance. Each academic year is divided into two semesters and teaching programmes are organized around the credit system. Teaching includes lectures, tutorials, practicals, projects, seminars, dissertations, and field and industrial training. The first year of the B.Tech. programme is common across all disciplines, during which students take basic courses in engineering, mathematics and professional communication. From the second year onwards, the students take courses offered by their departments that are known as "depth" courses. At the end of the third year, the B.Tech. and B.Arch. students undertake industrial training for a minimum period of eight working weeks as part of the undergraduate curriculum. In the final year of their studies, most of the students are offered jobs in industries and other organisations through the Training and Placement section of the institute. Some students opt out of this facility in favour of higher studies or by applying to recruit organisations directly.[27]

The institute offers graduate programmes in several disciplines, including programmes in science and engineering, leading to a Master of Science (M.Sc.) or Master of Technology (M.Tech.) degree respectively, as well as a program in computer applications (MCA) and management (MBA).

All of the institute's academic departments offer Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) degrees programmes. Admission to the PhD degree programs is either through industry sponsorship or through an entrance exam conducted by the institute. The doctoral research scholars are given a topic by the professor or work on the consultancy projects sponsored by industry. The duration of the programme is usually unspecified and depends on discipline. PhD scholars submit a dissertation as well as to conduct an oral defence of their thesis. Teaching assistantships (TA) and research assistantships (RA) are provided based on the scholar's profile. After the completion of doctoral studies, the candidates are placed in reputed public or private companies and universities. Also, many of the students after finishing their doctoral studies, do post-doctoral fellowships at research labs and universities in India and abroad.[28]