Our Bureau
Kharagpur
This Friday, on August 8th, IIT Kharagpur has made history as it becomes the first institution amongst the IITs to appoint a dean of student well-being. The institute appointed Arun Chakraborty, the professor at Centre for Ocean, River, Atmosphere and Land Sciences, as the dean of student well-being in the institute.
As per the reports, the director of IIT Kharagpur, Suman Chakraborty had earlier announced the appointment during the induction programme of the new batch that enrolled in B.Tech in July 2026. The institute has taken the step to introduce this position so that they can take care of students that are dealing with mental health issues.
The measures can be seen as a reaction to 4 suicides committed by the students in the campus in past 7 months. The latest of whom was a mechanical engineering student, Ritam Mondal, who was in his fourth year pursuing the course and was found hanging in his hostel room on July 18th.
“This is possibly the first time in any IIT that a person of a dean’s status has been assigned solely to look after students’ overall well-being. Our institute has a huge number of students, and it is necessary to have a designated dean of student well-being to give special emphasis to welfare activities,” said the director of IIT Kharagpur.
“We do not want any tragic incidents. Every student can approach us at any time. Even the smallest issues will be addressed. I’ve told students I am available 24×7 – they should not panic; we are here like parents,” Director Chakraborty added.
IIT Kharagpur has a total of 21 hostels in its campus which have somewhere around 16,000 students staying in it. While the institution already has a “Student Affairs” dean, they have added the “Student Well-being” dean because they consider them to be different from each other. The new dean will focus more on personal issues of the students and ensure their mental well-being.
