Guidelines for admission to post-graduate programmes:

The department follows semester system. The first semester normally commences in the last week of July every year and the second in the last week of December. Admissions to the Ph.D. programme may be made in either or both of the two semesters. The Head of the Department may take the decision in this regard. Admissions to the Ph.D. programme are normally made in April-May for the first semester and in November-December for the second semester. The Dean of Academic Affairs will notify the admission calendar each semester. In addition, the department may process applications for admissions to Ph.D. Programmes on a continuous basis and admit students as per the existing procedure. The candidates admitted during the course of a semester, would be required to register for thesis with proportionate reduction in units.

Guidelines for admission to part-time post-graduate programmes:

The Institute also offers part-time postgraduate programmes leading to the M.Tech./MS (Research)/Ph.D. degrees for professionally employed personnel such as working engineers, scientists and teachers who can, while employed, attend regular classes as per schedule of the Institute. These students will have to give an undertaking endorsed by their employers that they will be attending all classes.

The applicant must be an employee of a recognized organization with at least two years of service at the time of admission and be engaged in professional work in the area to which admission is sought. An application for the part-time studies forwarded by the employer should be sent to the Convener, DPGC of the department concerned.

Fulfillment of GATE requirement may be waived for such candidates. This is also applicable to the part-time candidates seeking admission to the MS (Research) program, who are employees of IIT Kanpur (project or regular) with an appointment and support for at least one year from the date of admission. However, the part-time candidates seeking admission to the M.Tech./MS (Research) program, who have not qualified GATE, will be called for interview and may in addition be asked to take a written test.

For an employee of IIT Kanpur (project or regular) with a valid GATE score at the time of seeking admission for part-time M.Tech./MS (Research) program, the requirement of two years of service may be waived.

Guidelines for admission of sponsored candidates to post-graduate programmes:

A candidate who is sponsored by his/her employer and who meets the additional conditions specified below may be admitted through a separate selection committee appointed specifically for the purpose.

A sponsored candidate must have been in service of the sponsoring organization for at least two years at the time of admission. The sponsoring organization must specifically undertake to provide full salary to the candidate and to relieve him/her to pursue the programme for its full duration. A certificate to that effect from sponsoring organization must be provided by the candidate at the time of applying for admission.

Fulfillment of GATE requirement may be waived for such candidates. However, the sponsored candidates seeking admission to the M.Tech./MS (Research)/Ph.D program who have not qualified GATE will be called for interview and may in addition be asked to take a written test.

Guidelines for admission to external registration post-graduagte programme:

A candidate working in an R & D establishment which is equipped with the necessary research and library facilities may be considered for admission only to the M.Tech./MS (Research) and Ph.D. (Engineering and Earth Sciences) programmes. Such a candidate must be sponsored by his/her employer and must have been in employment with the sponsoring organization for at least 2 year at the time of admission. The employer must expressly undertake to pay full salary to the candidate and relieve him/her to stay on the campus at least as long it takes to:

A certificate to that effect from sponsoring organization must be provided by the candidate at the time of applying for admission.

For fellows and employees of research labs, centers of excellence, and other organizations such as DRDO, CSIR, DAE, DoS, DIT, DST, DBT, ICMR, ICAR, NGRI, GSI, Wadia Institute etc., fully funded by the government (central/state), the minimum employment requirement will be only one year. The reduced employment requirement will also be applicable to employees of public sector unit (PSU) and central and state universities fully funded by the government.

A candidate applying for admission to the external registration programme must provide detailed information about the research facilities available at his/her organization and a certificate that these would be available to him/her for carrying out research. He/she should also provide the biodata of the prospective supervisor who would supervise the candidate's work at his/her organization.