campus festival
On a sultry summer weekend on the IIT Madras campus, something remarkable is happening. Regular graduate students of the campus are on holidays. In their place are 5,000 students of all ages from across the world who have enrolled in the online degree programme, called Bachelor of Science, offered by IIT Madras. These students are here for a special five-day campus festival. A young mother has flown in from Dubai to meet her “classmates”, while a gentleman joins in with his son – both online degree students.
Aspirations and unique experiences
For Nagarajan, a 60-year-old student studying on the campus, studying at IIT Madras was always an aspiration. “I was not able to pursue it because of the highly competitive admission process and life circumstances,” he says, adding that his classmates are in different age groups and it is a unique experience for them.
second chances
Delhi-based twins Arnav Kohli and Archit Kohli, both 21, are exploring the campus with their parents. The Kohli couple could not crack JEE to get into top IITs, so they joined Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology (MSIT) for B.Tech and pursued an online BS degree as a second degree – which the University Grants Commission (UGC) has allowed from 2022. “This program feels like a second chance to get to IIT and completing it with a strong CGPA has given me more confidence in my academic ability,” says Arnav Kohli. “Competing on the leaderboard with other students and, of course, with my twin brother has made the learning process highly engaging,” says Archit Kohli.
Flexible and Affordable Education
Flexible and low cost using technology
More than 36,000 students are currently enrolled in the online degrees offered by IIT-Madras’ Center for Outreach and Digital Education (CODE). The team is the same that runs the massively successful government upskilling initiative, National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), where top institutes offer certificate courses with real-life exams. (In 2025, NPTEL offers 2,000 courses with 3.64 million enrolments). In 2021, when the Code team wanted to launch an online graduate program, the idea was simple – to give an opportunity to those who want to study in an IIT but cannot take JEE or afford education at the age of 18-20. “Today, getting into a well-branded UG degree in India has become very expensive and competitive,” says Professor Andrew Thangaraj, Chairman of CODE, adding that it is because of this concern that the faculty at IIT Madras has launched this online graduate degree.
cost and access
Parents spend a lot for IIT seat ₹15-20 lakhs in coaching and B.Tech tuition fees. This is high for most families in India. “We wanted to offer a degree to anyone with less ability than ₹5 lakh,” says Thangaraj, adding that it was important for them to raise the level of high-quality education at low cost using technology. “We want to democratize education and make it accessible to all.”
comparative tuition fees
Online graduate degrees offered by top universities around the world, from the University of London to the University of Pennsylvania in the US, cost between $15,000 to $50,000. The cost of IIT Madras 4-year BS degree program is approximately ₹3.5-4.5 lakh, around $5,000. And 40% of their students come from low-income families, whose education is additionally subsidized.
revenue generation
However, even with the low tuition fees, the program is profitable due to the number of students who sign up. Although the team does not share official revenues, each semester, IIT Madras receives approximately ₹Rs 34-45 crore from active students for course signups. This means a revenue of approx. ₹The BS degree program alone fetches Rs 100-140 crore per year for three semesters, which the institute uses for technical infrastructure, cloud expenses and salaries of over 300 people working in code.
admission process
In addition to the subsidized tuition, entry into the program has also been democratized. Instead of an entrance exam like JEE, one can sign-up for a course. A foundational course is undertaken to prepare for qualifying examinations to continue to a four-year degree. Thangaraj explains that it is easy to enter but it becomes difficult as you move ahead. Out of 100 people who apply for a BS program, only five complete the degree. Others choose to leave studies at the different structured exit stages that the program offers – a one-year or two-year Diploma or a three-year BSc. In the end, it is the same percentage of IIT graduates after JEE-Advanced, says Thangaraj.
Completion Challenges
Since 2021, when the degree began, only 794 students have completed the actual degree, although more than 270,000 students have signed up. “This academic rigor is needed to maintain the quality of education,” says Thangaraj.
maintaining quality
Using Technology to Maintain Academic Quality
“Academic rigor” is a term repeated by most of the faculty and students associated with the program. This is due to the constant stream of criticism against the quality of education possible through online degrees and the deep-seated bias against those who have not passed or given the tough exams to get into the IITs. To deal with the naysayers, the exams are tough and the team has avoided online exams, instead opting to conduct monthly in-person exams for courses at 200 centers across India and West Asia. This course focuses less on theory and more on technical skills like a traditional B.Tech degree.
Industry-relevant skills
The focus is on industry skills such as data science, electronic systems, aeronautics and space technology, so students become employable within 1-2 years of pursuing the program. “BS degree students outperform our experienced mentors,” says Binoy Aravindakshan, director of learning and development at Hyderabad-based KPI Partners, which has hired 18 students from the BS pool last year. Online education requires self-motivation and helps these students be agile in fast-moving areas like enterprise AI. “Because of their strong desire to learn, they develop skills in emerging technologies very quickly,” he says, adding that the quality of BS online degree students is better than most B.Tech students in private colleges in the country.
hybrid learning experience
What helps keep motivation high is the hybrid format – such as the annual fest on campus – something the team has actively incorporated to add authenticity and reduce drop outs. Additionally, the program structure includes physical meetings, weekly live sessions, interactions, competitions, assignments, and online forums and informal WhatsApp groups in over 200 cities around the world. In 2025 alone, 650 meetings were held in various cities from Gorakhpur to Ajmer.
personal stories
It’s this hybrid nature of the degree that has kept Indranil Bhattacharya, 28, who works at Accenture and joined the program in 2022, keeping up with his studies, even though he finds the studies really tough. “This degree got me my first internship, my first full-time job, helped me secure my current job, and introduced me to my wife,” he says, adding that for people like him, who can’t go to regular college, it’s a unique opportunity to experience campus life.
second chance in education
Another opportunity through education
Soumya V Namboodiripad, 44, says that not everyone gets the right educational opportunities at the age of 18 or 20, with some people needing to restart life later. Encouraged by its flexible format, she started the program in 2021 and now works as a Senior Data Analyst at Code. She says, “This program gave me the confidence to restart my career. If it had not been available, I would have continued working as a housewife.”
democratization of education
The program offers a second chance, agrees Rajat Goyal, a 45-year-old businessman from Lucknow. Goyal lost his education business during Covid and joined the degree program in 2022 after his wife’s encouragement. “This is a rare opportunity for me to pursue a serious education from IIT Madras without leaving my work, family responsibilities or life,” he says, adding that this degree allows students from small towns, working professionals and people like them with family responsibilities to access a high-quality education. “This is real democratization of education,” he says, adding that India needs these models because millions of people in the country still cannot access higher education.
The author tracks the evolving relationship between science, technology and modern society. She also works as a philanthropy researcher and consultant. The views expressed are personal.
