Institutes convert students' scores on PSU request

Updated on: Friday, December 02, 2011

The IITs, national centres of excellence mentored by foreign governments, have for several years graded their graduates based on the Western system of cumulative grade point index (CPI). But now, all the IITs have drawn up an equivalence chart, comparing CPIs to the more conventional percentage system after public sector undertakings (PSUs) wishing to recruit from there, among other top institutes like the IIMs, asked them to do so. Each IIT, being autonomous, has its own grading system. Most award a CPI on a scale of 10, except that IIT-Kanpur does not award odd-number grades. Among the IIMs, Ahmedabad and Bangalore award a cumulative grade point average ( CGPA) on a scale of four-like American universities-but Calcutta grades students on a nine-point scale.

This, according to the PSUs, creates a lot of confusion and hence the request for a more conventional grading system. The professor in charge of placements at IIT-Bombay , Ravi Sinha, said: "All the IITs have come up with a conversion formula and we will have certificates with percentages for students who are applying to PSUs."

He said the IITs have fleshed out a uniform equivalence method so that a ''system of conversion equivalence should emerge from reliable data (as should) a clear and unambiguous basis to stand the test of time'' .

But most National Institutes of Technology have asked the PSUs to either devise a conversion table or refer the matter to the All-India Council for Technical Education. 

Times of India

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