Categories of Admission for M.S./Ph.D.

Broadly, there are four categories: (1) regular (HTTA/HTRA), (2) project (3) external and (4) part-time.
A regular candidate obtains financial assistantship from the Institute. The scholar is expected to work for eight hours a week as a teaching assistant/research assistant for the Department. Note. HTTA stands for Half Time Teaching Assistantship (for M.S. scholars) and HTRA stands for Half Time Research Assistantship (for Ph.D. scholars.).
In the project category, a scholar is paid a salary from a sponsored project through the centre for Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research, IIT Madras. The scholar is expected to work on the project and report to a faculty member (usually the scholar's advisor.)
The external category is for employed candidates. The candidate is jointly supervised by an advisor from the faculty, and another advisor at the place of employment. The student has a minimum on-campus residential requirement period (typically for completing course work and comphrehensive examination) after which periodic visits to the Department are required. External registration is provided only to employees of organizations where suitable facilities for research are available.
Part time scholars work under a faculty member. This type of admission is restricted to people within the vicinity of Chennai. Most of these students carry out their research work in the weekends in the Department.