Industry-friendly curricula for UG students mooted

HYDERABAD:  In a bid to make undergraduate education more flexible and industry oriented, collegiate education is set to get a facelift in the 2020-2021 academic year. This is due now that the engineering and polytechnic colleges have gotten a makeover recently. The Department of Collegiate and Technical Education of Telangana has decided to incorporate Massive Online Open Courses in the curriculum with 20 per cent credits for the same, said Navin Mittal, commissioner of Technical Education.

He was speaking to Express during the 9th Higher Education and Human Resource Conclave organised by the Department of Collegiate and Technical Education of Telangana along with Telangana State Council of Higher Education on Monday.

“The collegiate education is in the midst of a change. We have already brought in some curriculum framework which is more flexible. From the next academic session, 20 per cent credits will be obtained through MOOCs.

There will also be an option for cross-disciplinary programs and focus will be on project-based learning in the final year,” said the commissioner, adding that the curriculum is being revised with respect to market needs. Skills that are generally understood as co-curricular or extra-curricular, such as computer, communication skills or managerial skills, will now be brought within the framework of the curriculum. 

The department has also proposed to divide major subjects into 4 buckets, of which three would have to be chosen by students. Within each bucket, there will be multiple options. Students from the science stream will have the option to study Economics/ Computer/Statistics with the Maths, Physics, Chemistry combo.

Focus on disruptive technologies: AICTE
Neetu Bhagat, AICTE deputy director said that the statutory body is now focussing on giving a push to new disruptive technologies like big data, data analytics, and the likes to make the engineering courses more industry-friendly and their students more employable.