IIT Madras, India’s top technical institute, welcomes you to the world’s first BSc Degree program in Programming and Data Science.
For the first time, you can work towards an undergraduate degree / diploma from an IIT regardless of your age or location, and with a wide range of academic backgrounds.
Who can apply for admission?
1.Anyone who has passed Class 12 or equivalent can apply irrespective of age or academic background. Those who qualify can join the program immediately. View list of accepted class 12 equivalents.
2.School students who have appeared for their Class 11 final exams can apply irrespective of their group/stream/board. Those who qualify can join the program after passing Class 12.
It is expected that the applicants have studied Mathematics and English in Class 10.
No additional eligibility other than the ones mentioned above is required to apply for the qualifier process or join the foundational level courses after clearing the qualifying exam.
Mandatory Requirements to Enroll and Learn
Access to good internet connection as well as a laptop/desktop device will be a key requirement to learn effectively from our courses. For a complete list of software and hardware requirements, please refer to this document – Mandatory System Specifications.
Learner should be able to travel to assigned exam centres for quizzes and exams, each term. Check the list of exam cities where our exam centres are currently located.
Application Process
Applications for the batch starting May 2022 is now open. Apply Now.
Anyone who is eligible may apply by filling in the application form, uploading required documents and paying the application fee.
| General Category / OBC Applicant | ₹3000 application fee |
| SC / ST Category / PwD (>= 40% disablity ) Applicant | ₹1500 application fee |
| SC / ST Category Applicant who is ALSO PwD (>= 40% disablity ) | ₹750 application fee |
An additional exam facilitation fee will apply for learners opting to write the Qualifier Exam in an Exam Centre outside India.
Admission to the Foundation Level
Regular entry: All candidates, irrespective of their backgrounds, can earn admission to the Foundation Level by successfully completing the qualifier process. See details below
JEE-based entry: Candidates eligible to appear for the most recent JEE Advanced are directly admitted to the Foundation Level. See details below
Regular Entry
All regular entry applicants must go through the Qualifier Process to earn admission to the Foundation Level.
Qualifier Preparation: The qualifier process includes 4 weeks of coursework based on lecture videos, assignments, and live sessions of the four foundational level courses – English I, Mathematics for Data Science I, Statistics for Data Science I, and Computational Thinking – that will be provided through our online portal. Every week an assignment must be submitted for grading in each course.
Qualifier Exam: At the end of the 4 weeks, a qualifier exam will be conducted for eligible candidates based on the content covered in the 4 weeks of study.
Eligibility to appear for the qualifier exam (regular entry):
In each course, the average of the best 3 out of the 4 weekly assignment scores will be calculated. Only those who get the minimum required average assignment scores in all four courses (as given below) will be allowed to appear for the Qualifier Exam.
| Minimum Average Assignment Score required in each course | |
| General Learner | 40% |
| SC / ST / PwD with 40% disability | 30% |
| PwD with 40% disability & SC / ST | 30% |
| OBC-NCL / EWS | 35% |
Note: Relaxations in pass criteria indicated for various categories of learners is applicable ONLY for the qualifier process. There will be no relaxations in terms of grades / pass criteria once registered into the program.
Qualifier Exam and Passing Criteria (regular entry):
Only learners who are eligible to appear for the qualifier exam will receive the hall ticket for it.
The in-person Qualifier Exam at the end of 4 weeks of coursework is of 4 hours duration and covers all 4 courses.
To pass the Qualifier Exam, the learner has to get a minimum Average Qualifier Exam Score and a minimum Qualifier Exam Score in each course individually. Refer table:
| Min. Req. Qualifier Exam Score in each course | Min. Req. Average Qualifier Exam Score | |
| General Learner | 40% | 50% |
| SC / ST / PwD with 40% disability | 30% | 40% |
| PwD with 40% disability & SC / ST | 30% | 40% |
| OBC-NCL / EWS | 35% | 45% |
Note: Relaxations in pass criteria indicated for various categories of learners is applicable ONLY for the qualifier process. There will be no relaxations in terms of grades / pass criteria once registered into the program.
Only those who pass the Qualifier Exam will be eligible to register for the Foundation Level courses.
Validity of the Qualifier Exam result:
For candidates who have already appeared for or cleared class 12 board exams, the Qualifier Exam result is valid for a period of 3 terms (or 1 year). So, a learner may choose to not join the program immediately after clearing the Qualifier Exam and join in the second or third term following the Qualifier Exam.
For candidates who are yet to appear for class 12 board exams, the Qualifier Exam result is valid for a period of 6 terms (or 2 years). The extended validity is given to these candidates to facilitate joining the program after passing class 12.
Though everyone who passes the Qualifier Exam will be allowed to register for Foundation Level, there will be limitations on the number of courses a learner will be allowed to register for in their first term based on the Average Qualifier Exam Score (M).
| Average Qualifier Exam Score (M) | Number of courses allowed to register for |
| Minimum required <= M < 50% | up to 2 courses |
| 50% <= M < 70% | up to 3 courses |
| M >= 70% | up to 4 courses |
Re-attempt Qualifier Exam (regular entry)
Learners who were eligible to appear for the qualifier exam, but did not clear the qualifier exam or were absent for it, will be eligible to re-attempt the qualifier exam in the same term (refer important dates) without having to repeat the assignments.
Anyone who is eligible may apply by filling in the re-attempt application form that opens up immediately after the qualifier results are announced and paying the re-attempt fee.
| General Category / OBC Applicant | ₹1500 re-attempt fee |
| SC / ST Category / PwD (>= 40% disablity ) Applicant | ₹750 re-attempt fee |
| SC / ST Category Applicant who is ALSO PwD (>= 40% disablity ) | ₹375 re-attempt fee |
Learners who are not eligible to re-attempt OR do not clear the re-attempt exam may try again by applying again for the next term. Such learners will be required to pay the full application fee (₹3000 for general category applicants) and go through the entire qualifier process including the weekly assignments and qualifier exam.
JEE-based Entry
Candidates who qualified to appear for JEE Advanced 2021 can directly join our program in the May 2022 Term by following the steps below:
Note: Those who qualify to appear for JEE Advanced 2022 will be allowed to directly join our program in September 2022 Term or January 2023 Term.
Complete the application form found here.
Watch video content and submit weekly assignments for first 4 weeks of the four foundational level courses – English I, Mathematics for Data Science I, Statistics for Data Science I and Computational Thinking. (This is identical to the “Qualifier preparation” content in the regular entry process)
Appear for the in-person quiz of 4 hours duration conducted at the end of 4 weeks of coursework covering all 4 courses.
Register for courses at the Foundation Level based on the quiz scores. The average score of the 4 courses (M) will determine the maximum number of courses a student will be allowed to register for in the first term.
| Average In-person Quiz Score (M) | Number of courses allowed to register for |
| M < 50% | up to 2 courses |
| 50% <= M < 70% | up to 3 courses |
| M >= 70% | up to 4 courses |
International Students
Are you a learner outside India interested to join this program?
Are you worried about the in-person assessments?
This program is open to learners from all around the globe. You can study from IIT Madras and earn the BSc in programming and data science irrespective of the country you are from.
IIT Madras is setting up modalities to conduct in-person exams in as many countries as possible. Currently, we conduct in-person exams in the following cities outside India:
UAE – Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi
Sri Lanka – Colombo, Jaffna
Bahrain – Manama
Students residing in these countries must write exams in the designated exam centres. Students have to appear for in-person exams roughly once a month.
Learners residing in any other country, apart from those shown above, can also enroll for this program and appear for remote proctored exams. Please write to the following email id with any queries you might have – ge@onlinedegree.iitm.ac.in. Our team will get in touch with you and guide you on the next steps.
Important Link
Apply Link: https://onlinedegree.iitm.ac.in/
