Exchange Opportunities for IITK students

Student exchange is an opportunity for students at IITK to spend a semester or an year in a university abroad. At IIT Kanpur, Office of International Relations handles application for outgoing exchange students. According to the current curriculum, students mostly prefer to use on or both semesters of their junior undergraduate year to go on an exchange.

Opportunities

Some of the universities that past students have visited as exchange scholar are:
  1. University of Waterloo, Canada
  2. TUM, Germany
  3. Universite-des-Sciences-et-Technologies-de-Lille, France
A complete list of institutions where an exchange is possible can be found looking at the list of MoUs of IIT Kanpur with other universities. Not all of them have an agreement on student exchange but nonetheless one can contact OIR if any of them interests a student.

Guidelines

Before going on exchange 

   1. Peruse MOUs on OIR website and contact OIR for possible destinations.
   2. Go to exchange student pages of the individual universities to know the application procedure and deadlines. Select the universities you want to go to. Do take into account the courses that are being offered and how they tailor into your course requirements at IITK.
   3. Complete the exchange application procedure with OIR to know the university you have been selected for.
   4. Submit an application to DUGC of your department mentioning what courses have you completed, courses you plan to take on exchange and how you plan to complete your degree in time.
   5. Forward the application (approved by the DUGC) to the UG section for the approval of the Chairman, SUGC.
   6. Submit the whole application packet as required by your host university along with the SUGC approval to the concerned exchange coordinator at IR office.
   7. Read the details regarding finance and fees to be paid at IIT Kanpur. Get complete information on this from DOSA office.
After Coming From an Exchange 
   1. Submit the details of the courses taken (like course content, assignments and exams) to the DUGC of the department and take his approval for credit transfer.
   2. Transfer this approved application along with your official transcript from the host university to the UG office for the approval of the Chairman, SUGC for credit transfer and waiver.
   3. Your CPI remains same as what it was in the previous semester if you pass all the courses that you take at the host university. There is no grading done or SPI assigned for the exchange semester.

Personal Growth and Learning

You will be exposed to a lot of new experiences all at once which gives you an opportunity to learn many things in a short duration of time. There are many challenges that you face, most of them for the first time, and you learn to deal with them outside the support system of your family and friends. An exchange teaches you how to manage your everyday life when everything you need has to be done by nobody else but YOU! From grocery shopping to cooking your own food, from drawing lines between study time and party time to planning every day of the next week in advance, this life was totally different from my comfortable, impromptu decision taking life at IITK. An exchange program also gives one the opportunity to grow as a person through interactions with the various kinds of people that you meet. You get an opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture of the host country, know about their food, tradition, beliefs, religion, festivals etc. and there are good things to pick in all of these that you never thought of before. Trying local sports and activities are other good things you may like to try at your new home. Your host university is very likely to have people from all over the world as exchange students. Hence most of what has been mentioned above for host country stands true for all countries that these students come from if you take the initiative to find out.

Global networking

There are opportunities of networking with people from all around the globe. Frequent parties, events and get-togethers lead to meeting every possible kind of person you can imagine and have discussions on endless topics. You get amazed by what the world has to offer by travelling to new places.