Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Madras has admitted 8,154 students including 448 from Telangana in the first batch of its world’s first-ever online BSc degree in Programming and Data Science.

These students can enrol for foundational level courses, which will be offered from January 2021. The students admitted included 1,922 female candidates and 6,232 male candidates from across India.

Learners from various age groups and educational backgrounds applied for the qualifier, the IIT-Madras said in a press release on Wednesday. As many as 1,593 learners were from Arts, Science and Commerce background while 3,450 learners were from an engineering background, it said.

A total of 30,276 candidates had applied for the first qualifier process and were given access to the first month online classes of the programme.

A highly qualified content support team, specifically selected for this purpose, conducted nearly 400 hours of live sessions, to support the learning process of the learners, it said.

Congratulating selected students, IIT Madras Director Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi said, “IIT Madras is happy to welcome the first batch of students to the foundation level of BSc degree programme. The courses are delivered through a state-of-the-art online portal. Students are given the opportunity to participate in live sessions to clarify their doubts. The exams are conducted in-person so that the academic rigour of the programme is maintained.”