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

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

    RanjeetaUpdated on 02 Sep 2026, 06:02 PM IST

    IIT Rule of Changing Branch - 11 IITs that offer a branch change facility after the first year. Candidates can opt for the same by following the IITs rule for branch changes. The option is useful for those did not secure admission in their desired branch. Or in some cases, students also develop an interest in another stream during the course of their studies. Factors such as curriculum exposure in Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), interest in different subjects, or better career opportunities in another field often encourage students to consider a branch change. To address such situations, IITs have established specific rules and eligibility criteria for branch change options.
    Also Read: B.Tech admission based on class 12 | Best engineering branches for high salary

    This Story also Contains

    1. Rules for Change of Branch in IIT
    2. Which IITs Allow Branch Change?
    3. Can We Change Our Branch in Engineering After First Year?
    4. Can We Change Our Branch in Engineering in 2nd Year?
    IITs Rules of Changing Branch 2026: How can We Change Branch in IIT
    Rules for Change of Branch in IIT

    Students seeking a branch change must fulfil the conditions prescribed by their respective institutes. Read the complete article to know which IITs offer branch change options along with the institute-wise rules and eligibility requirements.

    Rules for Change of Branch in IIT

    Are you a student who seeks a branch change at IITs? Candidates looking for the IIT Bombay branch change, the IIT Delhi branch change and more must check this article. Students can know which IITs allow branch change and the required eligibility here. Although the criteria and rules of changing branches may vary from one institution to another. Every department has a certain quota percentage of students it can accommodate during the branch change process. Changing the stream is possible, but it is quite a rigorous process.
    Related: Rules of Branch change at IIIT | Rules of branch change at NIT | Branch change rules at GFTIs

    Institute-wise Rules for Changing Branch in IIT

    Name of Institute

    Branch Changing Rules

    IIT Bhubaneswar

    No provision for a change of branch

    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

    No provision for a change of branch

    IIT Hyderabad

    No provision for change of branch

    IIT Jodhpur

    No provision for a change of branch

    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

    No provision for a change of branch. However, candidates can opt for course upgradation if they wish to pursue interdisciplinary studies.

    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

    No provision for a change of branch

    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

    No provision for a change of branch

    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

    No provision for a change of branch

    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

    No provision for a change of branch


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    Which IITs Allow Branch Change?

    Are students willing ot know which IITs allow branch change after 1st year? They can check the list of colleges below. Over time, several IITs have removed the facility for changing branches in IITs.

    • IIT Delhi

    • IIT Gandhinagar

    • IIT Indore

    • IIT Kanpur

    • IIT Roorkee

    • IIT Ropar

    • IIT Bhilai

    • IIT Varanasi

    • IIT Goa

    • IIT Palakkad

    • IIT Tirupati

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    Can We Change Our Branch in Engineering After First Year?

    Yes, the IITs that offer the option to change their branch in engineering after the first year can apply for the same through official channels. Provided that each institute has some criteria that must be satisfied for branch change. Note that the eligible candidate can get the branch changed only once. Also, the desired course must not be too variant that the one that is being pursued already. Over the past 2 years, several of the IITs has discontinued branch change and have offered upgradation to a dual dgree instead.

    Can We Change Our Branch in Engineering in 2nd Year?

    No. Among all the colleges that offer IIT branch change, candidates must have cleared the first year only. Therefore, students cannot change their branch in engineering 2nd year. One of the main reasons is that the curriculum is mostly generic and common across all BTech courses; hence, students who change their branch can cope up in the 2nd year. However, the courseware gets subject-specific from the third semester onwards. Nonetheless, some colleges provide the opportunity to choose dual degree in third year, for those wish to opt for interdisciplinary studies.

    JEE Main Syllabus: Subjects & Chapters
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    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

    Q: Is it possible to change branch in engineering after 1st year in IITs?
    A:

    Yes, students can change their engineering branches while studying at some IITs. Read the entire article to know more about which IIT colleges allow branch change.

    Q: In which IIT branch change is possible?
    A:

    All IITs allow changing branches except for IIT Bombay, IIT Mandi, IIT, Jammu and IIT Hyderabad.

    Q: Is branch change possible at IIT Bombay?
    A:

    No, IIT Bombay does not have any provision for branch change.

    Q: What are the rules for change of branch in IIT Delhi?
    A:

    General, EWS and OBC category students have to score a CGPA > 8.00, while a  CGPA of >7.00 is required for SC/ST and PwD students who want to change their branch. 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. There should be no disciplinary action against him/her.

    Q: What are the rules for branch change in IIT Dharwad?
    A:

    Candidates can apply for branch change at IIT Dharwad after completing the first semester provided there is no backlog at the end of the first semester and completion of the prescribed course credits, branch changing is limited to a maximum of 20% of its sanctioned strength and should not fall by more than 20% of the sanctioned strength.

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