Uniform curriculum for engineering subjects soon

A uniform curriculum for all undergraduate engineering subjects across the country would be implemented from the next academic year. And a final decision to this effect would be taken soon by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), said Prof Pallapa Venkataram, Principal, Quality Improvement Programme (QIP) and chairman of Centre for Continuing Education (CCE).

 The idea behind the move, according to him, was to enhance the quality of engineering courses and bring it on par with international standards. The common curriculum would bridge the disparities in the contents of engineering subjects.

 The new curriculum would be applicable to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and private engineering colleges. After several rounds of meetings, the AICTE has worked out the templates of common curriculum for all subjects which would be hosted on its web portal by August next year.

 These templates can be used by the engineering institutions, the professor added. Pointing out at the need for a common curriculum, he said: “A survey pointed out that the teaching standards of engineering education in certain private engineering colleges was low.

 Hence, the Ministry of Human Resources Development and AICTE decided to revise and refine the curriculum so that the technical education in private engineering colleges would be on par with that of IITs”.

 Venkataram, who has been the coordinator for two engineering subjects explained: “For every subject eight professors from the IITs have brainstormed to arrive at a common curriculum.

 Two meetings are to be held by the HRD Ministry. The AICTE would host the templates of the common curriculum at the earliest. ” The private engineering colleges have readily agreed for the revision and to upgrade the engineering subjects, which would augment the quality of technical education in the country.

 “However, the private engineering colleges have cited the issue of faculty paucity in implementing the common curriculum,” he said.  But the AICTE has taken several steps like training courses and workshops for improving the quality of faculty, Venkataram said and added that at present there is a paucity of 40,000 engineering teachers across the country.