3 min readSep 23, 2026 06:00 AM IST First published on: Sep 23, 2026 at 06:00 AM ISTTwo deaths within a month at two of India’s most storied institutions of excellence come as a sobering moment in a nation that prizes them as tools of meritocratic ascent. At IIT-Bombay, a second-year BTech student took his life hours after he was allegedly found adopting unfair means in an examination. Following student agitation, the institute has suspended the dean who reported him, even as faculty members have rallied behind their colleague. Last month, at IIT-Delhi, the death by suicide of an MSc student set off weeks of protest and questions about the responsibilities of an institution towards those in its care. Behind both these instances are campuses struggling to find a language in which accountability and compassion can coexist.It would be a mistake to read in these tragedies evidence that some of the country’s brightest young people lack resilience. Those who clear these competitive examinations have already proved a formidable capacity for endurance. The larger question centres on the old imagination of authority in premier campuses, which are more socially and culturally diverse than ever before. With that diversity comes different experiences of class, caste, language, aspiration and vulnerability. The caste discrimination alleged by the deceased student’s family is a reminder that diversity without a corresponding shift in institutional culture can create new forms of exclusion, that a system designed principally around teaching, testing, rigour and discipline cannot address the change on campus solely through the addition of a counsellor’s office. It requires professors and administrators to hear what young people — many of them away from home for the first time — are trying to say about isolation, stigma and fear. Faculty, too, working within a system of administrative protocol and expected to anticipate crises for which they were never trained, need clarity about what is expected of them when a student is in distress, and the assurance that decisions taken in the best interest and following guidelines are not used to scapegoat them afterwards.AdvertisementNone of this is achieved in the sound and fury of the immediate aftermath of a tragedy. Campuses need guidelines that preserve academic integrity. Along with strong counselling and grievance mechanisms, they need a frank institutional reckoning with caste and hierarchy. Meaningful student representation should become ordinary institutional practice. Between 2006 and 2026, there have reportedly been over 170 student deaths across various IIT campuses.The role of an institution of excellence cannot be limited to the mentoring of high performers. It must also create a space where failure is not insurmountable. That task will never be easy. But the measure of a campus lies in whether academic excellence can be anchored in student wellbeing.