The country's centres of excellence, mentored by foreign governments, have graded their graduates based on a Western system-the cumulative grade point (CGP) index-for several years. Now a section is moving to a more conventional marking system, based on percentage, after Indian public sector undertakings have asked the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Management to provide an equivalent of their grades by giving percentages.
Each institute, autonomous in nature, has its own grading system. Most IITs award a cumulative performance index on a scale of one to 10 but IIT-Kanpur does not award odd-number grades. And, among the IIMs, those in Ahmedabad and Bangalore award a CGPA on a scale of one to four-like American universities-but IIM-Calcutta grades its students on a range of one to nine points.
This, according to PSUs, creates a lot of confusion and hence the move to ask for a more conventional grading system.
However, just like the current varied marking system, the decision to move to percentages too has elicited divergent responses among India's premier educational institutes. Some are internally drawing up an equivalence and will publish that on the report card. Other institutes don't feel the need to carry out such an exercise.
Professor in charge of placements at IIT-Bombay Ravi Sinha said, "Each PSU has its own human resource (HR) policy and they want us to provide our grade equivalence for the minimum threshold level, which they can interpret.'' So, IIT-Bombay, "keeping in mind students' interest,'' in its senate, decided to flesh out an equivalence so that a "system of conversion equivalence should emerge from reliable data as well as a clear and unambiguous basis to stand the test of time''.
But most NITs have asked the PSUs to either devise their conversion table or refer the matter to the All-India Council for Technical Education. "I have a method of grading my students and the PSUs should draw up their own method of assessing the graduates they hire. We have referred the case to the AICTE,'' NIT-Nagpur director S S Gokhale said.
IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua too said converting grades into percentage was "no easy answer''. IIT-Delhi chairman (placement) Kushal Sen confirmed that such a request had come from PSUs but "there is no way we can convert CPI to percentages''.
Many IIMs, however, have already designed a formula to convert CGPA to percentage. "PSU recruiters last year had the same request. They wanted us to provide the corresponding percentage for our CG. We did provide an approximation to them, which was close to being accurate,'' IIM-Bangalore placement officialSapna Agrawal said.
Sources in IIM-Calcutta too said that a rough formula had been devised for PSUs. "If a student has bagged a 5 CGPA, we convert it to percentage by multiplying it by 100 and dividing it by the maximum CGPA achievable, 9,'' an official said.
According to most institutes, the PSUs have shown greater interest in recent years in recruiting graduates from centres of excellence. "PSUs have now come up with a suitable job description and packages as well so students too have been interested in their offers,'' added Agrawal.
But, for most institutes, the decision to shift to the Indian academic method of awarding percentages is not going to be easy. "We merely hope that the PSUs do not stop visiting our campuses,'' said a placement head.
Each institute, autonomous in nature, has its own grading system. Most IITs award a cumulative performance index on a scale of one to 10 but IIT-Kanpur does not award odd-number grades. And, among the IIMs, those in Ahmedabad and Bangalore award a CGPA on a scale of one to four-like American universities-but IIM-Calcutta grades its students on a range of one to nine points.
This, according to PSUs, creates a lot of confusion and hence the move to ask for a more conventional grading system.
However, just like the current varied marking system, the decision to move to percentages too has elicited divergent responses among India's premier educational institutes. Some are internally drawing up an equivalence and will publish that on the report card. Other institutes don't feel the need to carry out such an exercise.
Professor in charge of placements at IIT-Bombay Ravi Sinha said, "Each PSU has its own human resource (HR) policy and they want us to provide our grade equivalence for the minimum threshold level, which they can interpret.'' So, IIT-Bombay, "keeping in mind students' interest,'' in its senate, decided to flesh out an equivalence so that a "system of conversion equivalence should emerge from reliable data as well as a clear and unambiguous basis to stand the test of time''.
But most NITs have asked the PSUs to either devise their conversion table or refer the matter to the All-India Council for Technical Education. "I have a method of grading my students and the PSUs should draw up their own method of assessing the graduates they hire. We have referred the case to the AICTE,'' NIT-Nagpur director S S Gokhale said.
IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua too said converting grades into percentage was "no easy answer''. IIT-Delhi chairman (placement) Kushal Sen confirmed that such a request had come from PSUs but "there is no way we can convert CPI to percentages''.
Many IIMs, however, have already designed a formula to convert CGPA to percentage. "PSU recruiters last year had the same request. They wanted us to provide the corresponding percentage for our CG. We did provide an approximation to them, which was close to being accurate,'' IIM-Bangalore placement officialSapna Agrawal said.
Sources in IIM-Calcutta too said that a rough formula had been devised for PSUs. "If a student has bagged a 5 CGPA, we convert it to percentage by multiplying it by 100 and dividing it by the maximum CGPA achievable, 9,'' an official said.
According to most institutes, the PSUs have shown greater interest in recent years in recruiting graduates from centres of excellence. "PSUs have now come up with a suitable job description and packages as well so students too have been interested in their offers,'' added Agrawal.
But, for most institutes, the decision to shift to the Indian academic method of awarding percentages is not going to be easy. "We merely hope that the PSUs do not stop visiting our campuses,'' said a placement head.
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