Chennai: In an attempt to bring accountability, responsibility and a sense of commitment, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras’ (IIT-M) student body, the Student Affairs Council (SAC) has decided to implement an ‘Honour Code’ on the lines of universities abroad, which all students need to sign and follow in letter and spirit. The honour code deals with several aspects of a student’s life on the campus, ranging from being late to class, plagiarism, fabrication of data in projects, to denying fellow students access to study resources and copying in exams.
The SAC took up the discussion about the honour code during its third meeting last week and the student members deliberated at length about the need for such a code at IIT-M. Speaking to this newspaper on Monday, Sree Satwik Gokina, speaker of the Student Affairs Council at IIT-M, said that the council had released the draft honour code.
“We have formed a seven-member committee, with five student members and two faculty, to handle violations in the implementation of the honour code. We are now in talks with various deans in our institute to get the code ratified by the institute administration,” he said.
The seven-member committee would be empowered to initiate punitive action against violators. The institute would soon come up with a one-line statement, such as, “I am proud to be an IITian and I will follow the honour code.” Former IIT-M deputy director and professor eme-ritus at IIT-M’s ocean engineering department Prof V.G. Idichandy welcomed the initiative and said that this has proved successful in the universities abroad.
