Rising campus suicides show an IIT degree offers a safety net but cannot justify crushing pressure - The Times of India

Rising campus suicides show an IIT degree offers a safety net but cannot justify crushing pressure

An IIT tag looks impressive, but over a full career, the vast majority of IITians do not perform any better than capable graduates from outside the system, writes Krishna Kumar

The recent death of a student at IIT Bombay, the third reported student suicide on the campus this year, has once again thrust the intense pressure within premier engineering institutions into the centre of public discourse.

While the mental health crisis in coaching hubs like Kota has long raised eyebrows, the pressure inside colleges that persists once students enter the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) remains far less examined.

An analysis drawn from RTI disclosures and media records reveals that between January 2006 and September 2026, 171 students died by suicide or other unnatural circumstances, across various IIT campuses, with 120 of these fatalities recorded in the last decade alone.

These figures challenge the belief that the prestige of an IIT seat justifies such extreme mental pressure. An IIT tag looks impressive, but over a full career, the vast majority of IITians do not perform any better than capable graduates from outside the system.

To evaluate the proposition objectively, one must examine the returns that an IIT degree provides over time. There is no dispute that an IIT education offers graduates a head start.

Institute placement metrics from IIT Bombay for the 2024-25 academic cycle show 1,422 accepted offers with an average annual compensation of approximately Rs 26.5 lakh, alongside 705 packages exceeding the Rs 20 lakh threshold. Yet this entry-level premium does not automatically translate into market dominance over the course of a career. Over a 10-to-15-year horizon, a respectable compensation package for an IIT alumnus with a decade of industry experience typically hovers below Rs 1 crore, with barely 10% breaching that financial benchmark.

The tiny 1% who achieve massive success are rare exceptions, yet their stories are used to sell the IIT dream to everyone else.

Over a longer horizon, non-IIT graduates routinely match their IIT peers in career growth and wealth creation. Data from long-term schooling cohorts shows that the top 10% of non-IIT professionals earn well over Rs 1 crore, driven largely by business ventures that create significant employment.

At the top end, non-IIT entrepreneurs have founded companies valued in hundreds and thousands of crores, proving that an elite engineering degree is not a prerequisite for success.

The real value of an IIT degree is that it acts as a safety net. While top performers from any college eventually reach similar heights in income and entrepreneurship, struggling graduates from regular colleges face a much harder climb than those from an IIT.

The premier brand guarantees a minimum salary floor, offering strong protection during recessions or early career missteps.

The real question is whether this basic financial security justifies such extreme psychological pressure. Society has turned IIT entrance into a single test of intelligence, success, and self-worth. For a 17-year-old, cracking the exam is certainly an achievement, but missing out cannot be treated as a life-altering failure.

An IIT degree opens initial doors, yet it neither guarantees permanent success nor denies it to those from other institutions. The pursuit of an elite college should remain a positive academic ambition, not a crushing burden that costs young lives.

(The views expressed are personal)

(The author is founder and CEO, Simplilearn)

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