The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani has overhauled its undergraduate curriculum to prepare students for a world being reshaped by artificial intelligence. The redesign gives learners more freedom to choose what they study, makes research and project work a core part of the degree, and for the first time builds structured wellbeing activities into graduation requirements.
Announcing the changes, Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Group Vice-Chancellor of BITS Pilani and former Director of IIT Delhi, said the institute was responding to two pressures at once: the impact of AI on how knowledge is accessed and applied, and growing concern over student mental health. With AI having democratised access to information, he said, the priority is to give students the confidence and skills to build things on their own.
Emerging subjects and flexible pathways
The revised programme keeps a strong foundation in science, engineering and computing, but pairs it with exposure to the humanities and arts, along with design thinking, entrepreneurship and real-world problem-solving. New and expanded areas of study include artificial intelligence, data science, software construction, quantum information and computation, astronomy and materials chemistry.
A wider basket of interdisciplinary electives allows students to move beyond their primary discipline and pursue interests across departments, a shift that mirrors the multidisciplinary, flexible-choice approach envisaged under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
Research and industry built into the degree
Research is no longer positioned as an optional add-on. BITS has strengthened its Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP), alongside Advanced UROP and Super UROP tracks, under which students take up societal problems and receive funding to develop and test solutions as part of their coursework.
The institute’s long-running Practice School programme will continue to provide industry mentorship, while dedicated entrepreneurship pathways are meant to help students carry promising projects towards ventures. To support the hands-on emphasis, BITS says it has invested more than Rs 50 crore this year in upgrading undergraduate laboratories across its Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad campuses.
‘Points of Experience’ for wellbeing
The most distinctive element of the new structure is a Points of Experience framework. Every undergraduate will need to earn 30 Points of Experience, roughly equivalent to 60 hours of structured participation in fitness, creative pursuits, wellbeing workshops, social conduct and community engagement.
These activities are formal curriculum requirements, but they are recognised through experience points rather than academic credits, so they sit alongside the academic load instead of adding to graded coursework.
Why it matters
As generative AI tools change what students can do with a laptop and a prompt, Indian institutions are under pressure to rethink what an engineering or science degree should certify. BITS Pilani’s approach combines a broader disciplinary foundation, research-first learning, industry exposure and attention to student wellbeing. It is one of the clearer attempts by a leading private institution to redesign the undergraduate experience for the AI era rather than simply add AI electives to an existing syllabus.
How the changes translate into learning outcomes, and whether other institutions adopt similar experience-based requirements, will be closely watched across India’s higher education sector.
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