People were quite surprised when 2014&’s IIT-JEE topper Chitraang Murdia, who was studying computer science in IIT Mumbai, decided to quit and join the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA. This Udaipur student opted to study basic science with a focus on physics in MIT and his decision created ripples in the Indian academic world as he was doing well in IIT, Mumbai.

Between 2012 and 2015, 2,060 students from the country&’s 16 IITs and more than 2,352 students studying in the 30 National Institutes of Technology, have dropped out. Dropouts from the IITs have been the highest in the 2014-15 academic session, numbering 757 students. Among the premier technological institutes, the one in Roorkee recorded the maximum number of dropouts at 228, followed by 209 in Kharagpur, 169 in Delhi and 72 in Mumbai. Students opting out of courses from IIT, Roorkee, have been steadily on the rise from 159 in 2012-13 to 188 in 2013-14. Among the older IITs, there has been no dropout from Kanpur since 2012 and only eight from Madras in 2013-14.

A study conducted by the Union ministry of human resources suggests that students dropped out primarily because of family reasons, medical issues or the inability to cope with academic stress. But no one in the last couple of years, barring Murdia, has gone elsewhere for studying basic science.

Murdia was expected to complete his course in the IIT after topping the IIT-JEE, one of the toughest examinations in the country. But he was there for only a year and will now have to study for three more to earn an undergraduate degree from the MIT. “Computer science is interesting but my passion lies in physics. I want to do research, probably in quantum theory,” he says. He has set an example for others to follow as the brightest students who are good in mathematics and physics are nowadays following the herd by studying courses like computer science and electrical engineering. Vijay Singh, former professor, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who trained Murdia for the International Physics Olympiad when he was in Class XII, feels that he has taken a path-breaking decision and others should emulate him .

Murdia was doing a physics project in electron-electron interaction with Singh under the National Initiative on Undergraduate Science and had won the Physics Olympiad gold medal. “If students interested in pure science are challenged with problems instead of the rote learning promoted by coaching institutes, then many more will be inspired to follow Murdia&’s path,” says Singh.

Programmes like the NIUS are helping more students to pick up projects at the undergraduate level. Raghu Mahajan, the 2006 IIT-JEE topper, had quit computer science and engineering from IIT, Delhi, as well after two years to pursue physics and is presently doing a PhD from Stanford University. Mahajan, too, won a gold medal at the Olympiad and did a project under NIUS.

IIT, Mumbai, director Devang Khakhar says many students switch subjects after the first year while former IISC director, P Balaram, feels it cannot be called a trend yet because only a handful of good, focused and motivated students manage to make the switch.

“Students who are exposed to competitions like the Olympiad know of the options. JEE is not a test for what students want to do and the first rank is not something a candidate would have planned for. In India, there are very few good institutes to pursue pure science and so getting in is quite difficult, unlike abroad”, says Goverdhan Kothari, former director of IISC, Bengaluru.

Murdia&’s ultimate aim was research and he got that opportunity when was selected for the MIT scholarship. He says, “My long term goal was to go for research. There is a lot of scope there and I want to give back to society.” A student of Delhi Public School (Udaipur), Murdia scored 97 per cent marks in the CBSE board exams and took only “partial” coaching from an institute in Kota.

It was while participating in the Olympiad at Kazakhstan that he learnt the silver and bronze medal winners were not keen on studying engineering but rather basic science. Leaving one of India&’s best engineering institutes couldn’t have been an easy decision and he says, “I was in a dilemma for the last five or six months about whether to leave or not. Then I spoke to a lot of people about the same and decided on applying for MIT.”

One of the reasons behind his decision to quit IIT Mumbai was the absence of a research-oriented atmosphere in pure science at the undergraduate level — a sorry fact shared by most engineering institutes in the country.