Mumbai: Around 400 BTech students enrolled in the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Surat have a glorified tin shed to claim as their “campus”.

The institute was set up in 2017 and declared an institute of national importance in February 2020. Until recently, it functioned out of the Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT) but had to vacate the campus because the latter was under renovation.

IIIT-Surat students stare at a bleak situation as the institute is set to being offline classes in mid-August. 

One of the third-year students, enrolled in the BTech in Electronics and Communications, told The Wire that with physical classes set to being, some parents went to check on the institute. What they found was shocking. The buildings are still in the preliminary stage of construction. Pillars have been raised and a small part of the roof has been installed in one of the buildings. 

“On the one hand, the institute wants us to return for offline classes in a few weeks. On the other, they have no clarity on how and where they plan to conduct our classes,” he said. The student, along with others from the student body, took to Twitter to voice their grievances.

The institute’s director J.S. Bhat said that the construction of the planned campus got delayed due to the monsoon. In the meanwhile, the students will be accommodated at an alternative location, he said. “The transit campus is being developed by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD). Due to rain, it got slightly delayed. The local government is giving full support for developing the necessary infrastructure and the campus will be ready soon,” he replied to The Wire’s queries.

It is not just the academic campus that is incomplete. The hostel accommodation, the students are being told, will be 12 kilometres away. Students claim the hostel, which is shared with a school, is in a deserted area with no facilities available close by.

While the institute says it will provide shuttle service, the students will have to travel 24 km every afternoon just for lunch. And the food won’t be available over the weekend, the institute has told the students.

“It is all a joke to them. The college is charging Rs 2.5 lakh per academic year and they expect us to live in such conditions,” a second-year student said. She further added that she “feels stuck” but can’t back off now. “It is not like we can move to another college mid-year. And the situation is more or less the same in every IIIT,” she said. Most students that The Wire spoke to did not want to be identified, fearing adverse action from the institute. 

Students have urged the institute to provide them with an alternative campus, where facilities appropriate for an institute of national importance (INI) are available. One of the demands made by the students is that IIIT Surat should be considered as part of IIT Gandhinagar until it gets its own academic space.

The institute has two courses – BTech in computer sciences and BTech in electronics and communications. Students from different parts of the country have secured admissions, which are done on the basis of their JEE scores. So far, two batches have already graduated from the institute. “Every year, the authorities would tell us that the institute will soon operate out of its own campus,” one student said. Surprisingly, despite the lack of even basic infrastructure, the institute is planning to start PhD courses shortly. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, students were sent back home and the classes, like in any other colleges and schools, were conducted online. The online classes, however, went on for too long and without adequate alternatives, one student rued. “Imagine completing an entire engineering degree without practical training. That is pretty much how we have managed. We are told to just learn things on our computers,” the female student added.

This was one of the primary concerns of the students and hence many emails were written to the institute.  The emails mostly went unanswered, students say. And when parents of the students began petitioning the institute, it was compelled to finally consider offline classes, a student claimed. But with just the skeleton of a building constructed, students are now left wondering what their fate will be.

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