IITs Rules of Changing Branch 2026: How can We Change Branches in IIT

Name of Institute

Branch Changing Rules

IIT Bhubaneswar

A student with a CGPA of at least 8.50 at the end of the second semester after completing the prescribed credits on the first attempt without having to pass any course requirement in the supplementary examination and/or summer quarter.

IIT Bombay

No provision for a change of branch

IIT Mandi

No provision for a change of branch

IIT Delhi

Students can apply for a change of branch at the end of the first year only after satisfying the following criteria:

• A CGPA > 8.00 for General, EWS and OBC category students

• A CGPA >7.00 for SC/ST and Person with Disability category students

• Earned all credits of core and non-graded units at the end of the second semester

• The grade in one first-year course, identified by each programme should be equal to or above B.

• No disciplinary action against him/her.

IIT Indore

Candidates can change their branch only after completing two semesters, subject to fulfilment of the following conditions:

• Students without any non-credit earning grades (i.e. FR, XX & NP) and having CPI > 6.5 for GEN and OBC-NC categories and CPI>6.0 for SC and ST categories are eligible to apply

• The top 1% students of the total students who complete the first year will be eligible for change without any constraints. Other students will be permitted strictly on a merit cum preference basis.

• The request for change (in order of merit cum preference) from branch A to branch B will be considered if:

(a) The number of transfers to branch B does not exceed 10% of its sanctioned strength inclusive of two vacancies for meritorious eligible students of SC and ST categories.

(b) The number of students on roll in branch A does not fall below 85% of its sanctioned strength.

(c) The request of a student will be re-considered (again in order of merit cum preference) if he/she does not violate point (b) above due to another student getting transferred to branch A.

(d) If a student is not permitted to change from branch A to B (due to (b) above), any other student in any branch with a CPI less than the earlier candidate will also not be permitted to change to branch B.

• Branch Change will be allowed only once at the beginning of the second year of the B.Tech programme.

• In case of a tie between two students then the student having more number of higher grades will have a higher merit.

IIT Kharagpur

• B.Arch. students are not allowed to change their branch.

• Student of B.Tech. or B.S. courses can change their branch only after the first two semesters. Moreover, candidates have to complete all the credit courses in the first two semesters with a CGPA of at least 8.5 or above at the end of the second semester.

• Change of branch will be permitted strictly based on the inter-se-merit of the applicants. In case of a tie, the JEE rank will be considered.

• Applicants who have secured a rank within the top 1% will be able to change their branch without any constraint.

• Remaining eligible applicants shall be allowed to change branches strictly in order of their inter-se merit only if the actual number of students in the third semester in the branch, to which the transfer is to be made, does not exceed 110% of the number of students on roll in that branch in the previous semester.

• Dual degree programme aspirants will be considered for a change of branch to another dual degree programme only.

IIT Hyderabad

No provision for change of branch

IIT Jodhpur

• A candidate is eligible to apply for branch change at the end of the second semester only, provided the student satisfies the following criteria:

1. Secured a CGPA of >=7 for SC/ST/PwD candidates and >=8 for others at the end of the second semester

2. Completed all prescribed course credits for the first two semesters (including the non-graded courses).

3. No backlog at the end of the second semester and no disciplinary action against him/her.

• Change of the branch will be permitted strictly in the order of merit as determined by CGPA at the end of the second semester. Each available seat may be occupied by students of any category.

• In case more than one student applying for branch change have the same CGPA, the tie shall be resolved based on the JEE ranks of such applicants.

• In making a change of branch, the strength of a branch should not fall below 85% of the actual strength and should not go above 115% of the sanctioned strength.

• The conditions mentioned in item (a) will not be insisted upon for change to a branch in which a vacancy exists concerning the sanctioned strengths, and the concerned student was eligible as per JEE Rank for admission to that branch at the time of entry to IIT Jodhpur.

• Notwithstanding any of the conditions listed above, a student with a CGPA of 9 or more at the end of the second semester will be allowed to move to a branch of his/her choice

IIT Kanpur

• Branch changing will be based on the decreasing order of the cumulative power Index(CPI)

• Candidates can change their branch after the second, third and fourth semesters.

• Students can apply for conversion of their Bachelor of Science/ Bachelor of Technology programme for a dual-degree programme.

• Candidates doing well in their programme, can opt for a second major where they will have 9-10 additional courses and may require an extra year for the completion.

IIT Madras

• A limited number of students can change their branch based on their academic performance in a specific set of courses at the end of the first semester.

• B.Tech students with a CGPA of 8 without any backlog at the end of sem 5 can transfer from a BTech programme to a five-year dual degree programme in the same department.

• Change of branch will be considered in dual degree programmes with more than one specialization, at the end of sem 6 (end of sem 4 for a dual degree in engineering design), the student should have a minimum CGPA of 8 at the end of sem 5 (sem 3 in case of a dual degree in engineering design)

• Candidates will be able to upgrade from BTech, BTech + MS (Entrepreneurship) Programme at the end of sem 6 only if the CGPA is >=8.0 or student qualifies through GATE and are eligible for HTRA from sem 9 onwards. Students will have to complete all the credits for their BTech programme (Dept. specific), and the BTech project of 9 credits as a Detailed Project Report (DPR) establishing pre-feasibility of the product/process to be developed.

• Dual Degree students can convert to B.Tech + MS(E) programme at the end of their year 3 or 4. Candidates have to complete their BTech requirement in the parent department (except the project) with the project credit being merged with their MS thesis.

IIT Gandhinagar

Students can apply for a branch change after the first two semesters

• Candidates with a CPI of 9.50 or higher are allowed to change the branch without any restriction.
• For others, change is considered in order of merit determined by the CPI (with a minimum of 6.50 without any fail grade/backlogs are eligible).

IIT Patna

Candidates can change their branch if:

• They have completed all the common credits required in the first two semesters in their first attempt with a CPI of at least 8.00 without having had to pass any course requirement in the summer term examination. The limitation of change in branch is that the strength of a branch must not fall below the existing strength by more than 10% and does not exceed the sanctioned strength by 10%.

IIT Roorkee

Students offered admission through JEE (Advanced) except those admitted to the BArch Programme can apply for a change of branch at the end of sem 1 provided they fulfil the following criteria:

• earned all the specified credits in the programme structure at the end of the semester

• not failed in any course

• not been penalized for indiscipline

• The change of branch should not exceed 10% of the sanctioned strength of the programme and the change should not result in the strength of the branch from which the transfer is being made to fall by more than 25% of the existing strength

• Students will be allowed the change of branch strictly based on the inter-se-merit of their SGPA. In case, the SGPA of more than one student seeking the change of branch is equal, the JEE (Advanced) rank will be considered to allow branch changing.

IIT Dhanbad

• A student who has been admitted through JEE Advanced will be able to apply for branch change only once based on their merit only if they pass all the subjects in first attempt

• Have not been punished for any indiscipline

• Candidates who have secured a rank within the top 1% will be able to change their branch without any constraint.

• Applicants with a CGPA >=8 for general/OBC category and >=7 for SC/ST candidates are eligible for branch changing provided maximum number of students in a branch does not exceed 110% of the sanctioned strength and the number of students in a branch does not fall below 80%.

IIT Ropar

Candidates can apply for change of branch at the end of first year only if they meet the following criteria:-

• CGPA for GE/OBC category student should be >=7.5 and for SC/ST/PwD candidates should be >=6.5

• Earned credits at the end of the first academic session are 36 credits or more.

• Change of the branch will be permitted strictly in the order of merit, determined by CGPA at the end of the first year

• The limitation to the branch changing is regarding the total strength of the batch. Ths strength should not exceed by more than 10% of the sanctioned intake and should not fall below 85% for the branch from which the transfer is taking place.

• A minimum of two students will, however, be eligible for branch change from each discipline, irrespective of the regulation stated above.

• In case of a tie in CGPA, it will be compared up to 3 decimal places and if the tie still persists, all the students, with the same CGPA, would be allowed to change the branch.

• The condition mentioned above will not be insisted upon for changing a branch in which a vacancy exists as per the sanctioned strength and the concerned student was eligible as per JEE Rank for admission to that branch at the time of entry to IIT Ropar.

IIT Varanasi

Branch changing at IIT Varanasi shall be permitted only once at the beginning of semester 2 or 3 based on the candidate’s academic performance subject to strength constraints. The rules for changing of the branch are as follows:

• The change will be allowed from one discipline to another within their respective programmes (BTech to BTech and dual degree programme to dual degree programme)

• The strength constraint states change is allowed only if the no. of students does not fall below 50% and further does not exceed more than 10% of the sanctioned number.

• For changing branches students must have passed all semester courses and secured a CPI of >=8 to be allowed to change branches

IIT Guwahati

• The changing of branches is allowed after the end of semester 2.

• Students should have completed all the courses of their first two semesters without failing in any course and without passing through supplementary examination.

• No CPI restriction for applying for a change of branch.

• Change of branch will be permitted based on merit at the end of the first two semesters.

• The only limitation is that the strength of a branch must not fall below by more than 10% of its existing strength and must not go above 10% of the sanctioned intake.

IIT Bhilai

• Branch changes for B.Tech students at IIT Bhilai will be permitted only once based on:

• The Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) at the end of the second semester.

• In case of a tie, the grade distribution will be used to break the tie.

• The enrolled capacity of any discipline shall not reduce more than 20% and the total number of students of any discipline shall not exceed 110% of the allotted capacity.

IIT Goa

• Students can change their branch after completing their first two semesters of the program only if:

• He/she has completed all the prescribed course credits of the first two semesters.

• The students shall not have any backlog at the end of the first year.

• Open, Gen-EWS and OBC-NCL category candidates should have an SPI (Semester Performance Index) of at least 8.00 in the second-semester. Students of SC, ST and PwD (Divyang) should have an SPI of at least 7.00 in the second semester.

• The student should not have been found guilty of any academic misconduct.

• The strength in Branch A, from which a change is being sought should not fall below its sanctioned strength by more than 30%.

IIT Palakkad

• A selected number of students can change their branch based on their academic performance in the year 1 of their programme.

• The number of students who can make a branch change is limited so that the final strength in any branch does not deviate much.

IIT Tirupati

Change of branch at IIT Tirupati is permitted subject to the following rules:

• Change will be considered only at the end of the first year. The performance during the first year will be the basis for consideration for change of branch.

• In making a change of branch, the strength of a class should not fall below the existing strength by more than 10% and should not go above the sanctioned strength by more than 10%.

• However, a minimum of one student will be eligible for consideration for a change of branch from each discipline at the end of the first year, irrespective of the limitation stated above.

• If a student with a higher CGPA is not offered a particular branch because of other constraints, it shall not be offered to any other students with a lower CGPA even if he/she is eligible based on the existing norms.

• Change of branch rules is subject to revision from time to time and the decision of the Senate will be final and binding.

IIT Jammu

No provision for change of branch

IIT Dharwad

Candidates can apply for branch change after completing the first-semester subject to the following rules:

• completion of the prescribed course credits in the first semester

• no backlog at the end of the first semester

• Before beginning the allocation, additional seats are made available in each branch, limited to a maximum of 20% of its sanctioned strength.

• While students are allotted seats of general and reserved type during admission, this data is not used during branch change. Each available seat may be occupied by students of any category.

• An eligible student's request for a shift from branch A to branch B will be considered if there is a seat available in Branch B and the strength of the branch from which a change is being sought, does not fall more than 20% of the sanctioned strength.