Ananya (name changed on request), a 25-year-old first-year PGP student at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Ahmedabad, has not slept properly in days. The most she can fit in her packed schedule at the college is a quick nap here and there. She also hasn’t eaten well since she first came here. But, she says, she is not alone in this. Every second person at the college lives like this. Why? “You have classes throughout the day, there are multiple assignments due each day, you have workshops to build your resume, there’s the summer internship placement stress, and there are surprise quizzes. Every day at 1.45 pm, when people are having lunch—if they are not missing meals, that is—you get to know if there’s any surprise quiz on that day. So people leave their lunch and run to study,” she says. Getting into an institution of national importance was never a cakewalk in India. But over the years, being a student in these colleges has become increasingly stressful too. 

In September this year, two deaths by suicide in top Indian colleges made a splash in the news. A third-year student of computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Assam’s Guwahati died on September 9. Exactly 15 days later, a second-year PGP student at IIM-Ahmedabad took his life on September 24, and police probes cited stress as a reason for this.

These are not one-off cases. In fact, in IIT-Guwahati, this was the second suicide in a month’s span and the third in a year. In the past decade, student suicides have increased significantly, National Crime Records Bureau reports in the past few years have shown. 

With students at premier institutions coming out and talking about how stressful college life is for many of them, one question begs itself—what is it like being a student today? FE reached out to students, and stakeholders across the education space— institutes, professors, recruiters, admission consultants—to ask this pertinent question.

Anxiety, stress 24×7
For Ananya, when she was joining IIM-A, she knew the college had one of the most rigorous curriculums in the country. But what she didn’t expect was professors jokingly saying things like, “When we hear voices coming from the campus grounds at night, that’s how we know that the students are still alive.” 

The competition at the college level is also intense and, in some cases, extreme. When you make it to a top university, you are the cream. But if everyone is used to being the best always, those who come second don’t know how to cope with it, students say. 

Anuj (name changed on request), a final-year engineering physics student at IIT-Guwahati, nods in agreement. He shares, “The peer pressure and race to be better than everyone else often gets to you.”
What Ananya says about students having no free time at all is something that Anuj resonates with all too well. IIT-Guwahati has a 75% mandatory attendance policy—which gets difficult for students to keep up with when you’re also doing internships, sitting for placements, and participating in extra-curricular activities at the same time. 

The sadder part, say these students, is that no one gets a pause… ever. If you sit down and take a break for five minutes, the guilt of not being productive eats you up. “No one even pretends to make things easier for you here. The college itself manufactures pressure artificially, and expects you to cope. What’s the need to take four exams in two days? Why are there no breaks between semesters? People don’t have the time to ask for help or offer it to someone. Even if there are counselling services, the mentality to help is missing,” says Ananya. 

However, it’s not just the college or professors that put this pressure on students. The families of the students are to blame here as well. Mahima (last name withheld on request), a 25-year-old LLB student at Delhi University’s Faculty of Law, says, “Your family expects a lot from you when you get into a good college. Their expectations for good jobs, good internships, and full attendance often weigh you down. And even more so when you leave your city to study, because then you have to manage the daily struggles while living up to your parents’ expectations.”

She adds, “When you are pursuing a non-professional course, your family also pressures you to prepare for competitive examinations or pad up your CV by doing enough extra-curricular activities to land a decent job.”
“But, what gets to you the most,” says Anuj, “is how no one acknowledges the mental toll it takes on us when we see deaths by suicide on campus. In my 3.5 years here, I have seen eight student deaths. For weeks after that, other students and I haven’t been able to eat, sleep, or study. But the institute keeps functioning like it’s another normal day. After the last suicide, they didn’t even postpone the mid-semester exams and the placements had already started as well. Can students actually give their best in such a scenario?”

What stakeholders say
On their part, the colleges that FE spoke with say they’re going above and beyond to help students and ease things for them. Manaswini Bhalla, chairperson of the two-year full-time MBA at IIM-Bangalore, and Rajluxmi V Murthy, chairperson of the student welfare office at IIM-Bangalore, say, “The institute ensures dedicated breaks from academic schedules, allowing students to engage fully in extracurricular activities. For instance, no academic activities are scheduled during cultural, sports, and business festivals hosted by students. Additionally, a separate week is allocated for workshops and global exposure programmes.” They add that the institute also focuses on maintaining a “healthy and inclusive environment, free from any form of bullying or discrimination”.

Similarly, officials at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru say they have 24×7 mental health resources and counselling support available on campus that students and faculty can seek help from. They also host panels on managing stress, organise sports, cultural, and technology festivals, and encourage students to participate in activity-based clubs.

“IISc is cognisant of the stresses and pressures that students face. We are consistently making attempts to address these in a timely manner,” says an official of the institute.

Jamia Millia Islamia’s former vice-chancellor Mohammad Shakeel also says something on similar lines, “The university encourages a balance between academics and personal well-being, aiming to create a nurturing environment for students to thrive both academically and personally.”

But while universities claim that they’re doing everything they can, students say they’re still at the suffering end. For instance, Ananya mentions that at IIM-Ahmedabad, people are conditioned to have a “narrow view of life” that ends at the internship or job offer you get. That’s what decides your worth in front of both your professors and your peers. On the other hand, Anuj says that while the colleges make big claims, they “don’t sensitise the faculty to the needs of students”.

He adds, “The administration also doesn’t make things easier for students when they can. Some semesters are packed to the brim with competitions, classes, and placements; and there’s nothing happening at all in other semesters.”What is noteworthy is that the pressures don’t just come from family or the institute. There are other stakeholders too.

High expectations
Job recruiters who approach the colleges for campus placements need the student to be a perfectionist in every aspect, claim students. When FE reached out to Ruwaidah Suhail, a recruiter with a major telecom company based in Gurugram, she acknowledged that companies do have a lot of high expectations from candidates. Says Suhail, “When we look at a CV, we do look at a candidate’s academic performance and check if they’ve scored well. But our focus is more on what the student was able to do other than studying or mugging up the answers.” She adds that recruiters want to know if the candidate participated in any extra-curricular activities, if they were a part of any practical projects and did something “out of the box, used their creative thinking, and did anything innovative. ”But again, there’s another aspect which trumps all of this in many cases. Ayushi Jha, an HR professional with Yamaha Motor Solutions India, explains that for some technical roles, the company mandates that the candidate has certain certifications or qualifications.
“There’s a lag between what students learn in colleges and what the job market requires, so we stress on additional certifications, internships, and practical skills,” Jha says. 

This is something that Anuj has had to make up for throughout his college life. His course is not a professional one, he says, so he has had to keep doing “upskilling courses” to make himself palatable for the job market. 
For students who don’t want to sit for placements and study further, the going does not get easier either—especially if they want to apply to universities abroad.

Shruti Rathi Mandhane, a study abroad consultant who assists students with university applications, says, “Foreign universities generally seek a well-rounded profile that includes strong academic performance, extracurricular activities, internships, and credit courses, along with a strong statement of purpose, application essays, and letters of recommendation.” 

Why these extra points on your CV also matter is because your chances of getting a scholarship might depend on it. Rittika Chanda Parruck, the director of education at the British Council, says that “well-rounded portfolios” have a greater fighting chance at securing scholarships, as do projects on your CV that show “leadership abilities, diverse skills, and achievements”.

When all this is just the bare minimum required to scratch the surface, students have to start early to build a solid profile. Parruck says, “Universities do not intentionally put pressure on students by making needless demands. They are committed to providing a great education and maximum exposure to their students through their activities in a well-rounded way. However, it can be overwhelming.” 

Overhauling the system 
So what does this mean? Have our universities become a churning ground only for the job market? Entangled in everything that the recruiters require, do students have no space and time left for personal growth? What about those who want to pursue the arts—the writers and the thinkers? Do they also become one with the rat race?

More importantly, who does the buck stop with, when multiple stakeholders are involved? Furqan Qamar, a professor at the Centre for Management Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia and the former education adviser to the Planning Commission of India, says an overhaul is needed when it comes to higher education in the country. He says, “To start with, colleges require to upgrade two basic things—their infrastructure and their curriculum. So much of the stress in students is caused by poor residential spaces, poor food habits, lack of space for physical activities, and just no place for them to wind down and relax.”

Qamar adds, “The curriculum needs to be upgraded, so that students don’t have to juggle between multiple things. Additionally, there should be extra-curricular activities built into the time tables to prevent students from having to choose what to attend. Too much cramming and keeping students busy from morning to night is not a good education strategy.”

Rekha Saxena, the head of the political science department at Delhi University, also suggests establishing well-resourced mental health support systems that are easily accessible to students and inclusive. 
This, Ananya says, is something that’s already present in colleges like hers but still is often unable to provide the required help. She says, “Your personal relationships outside the campus get distant because you don’t have the time to talk to your family and friends. The lack of support both inside and outside feels overwhelming.”

To this, Saxena adds, “Develop a more formalised and transparent process where student feedback plays a direct role in shaping academic and administrative policies. Regular student-faculty committees should be held where student voices can be heard and implemented into policy.”

When it comes to mental health, Qamar also says that the faculty needs to be sensitised and understand the challenges of different students from different cohorts. He says, “A culture of cohesion and diversity should be maintained, where no discriminatory comments should be allowed.”

However, he adds, that all of these would just be the stepping stones to overhauling the education system where a student’s admission into premier institutes isn’t rooted in stress and pressure-inducing exams itself.

Drastic demands

Engineering graduates

  • Academic curriculum: 8 semesters of 6 months each, with 6-8 subjects per semester
  • Course requirement to graduate: Undergraduate thesis and minimum credit score as per the college’s demands
  • What employers demand: 1-2 research internships, practical projects, and positions of responsibility in college societies

MBA graduates

  • Academic curriculum: 6 semesters of 3-4 months each, with 13-14 subjects per semester
  • Course requirement to graduate: Summer internship at the end of the first year
  • What employers demand: Balanced and well-rounded profiles with active participation in societies and clubs

Humanities graduates

  • Academic curriculum: 6 semesters of 6 months each, with 4-5 subjects per semester
  • Course requirement to graduate: Dissertation or capstone project
  • Future prospects: Either sit for competitive and entrance examinations for further studies, or have a bank of 5-6 internships on your CV to secure employment