In a dialog with BW Schooling, Dr B Chennakesava Rao, Principal, VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering & Know-how, shares insights from over 4 a long time in engineering schooling. He discusses the actual affect of institutional autonomy, the gaps in outcome-based schooling, the necessity to steadiness employability with mental depth and why college re-skilling stays central to navigating the calls for of Trade 4.0.
Excerpts:
After 4 a long time in engineering schooling, how do you assess the actual affect of autonomy on tutorial high quality, college accountability and scholar outcomes in India’s personal engineering establishments at the moment?
Autonomy has been one of the crucial important developments in Indian engineering schooling, which has allowed establishments to maneuver away from inflexible curricular constructions, that reply extra successfully to technological change and evolving {industry} wants. In my expertise, establishments that deal with autonomy as a chance for steady tutorial reflection profit way over those who view it merely as administrative flexibility. Autonomy turns into significant solely when it results in deeper engagement with curriculum design, pedagogy and scholar studying outcomes.
At VNRVJIET, autonomy has enabled us to periodically assessment and refine our curriculum and introduce interdisciplinary studying alternatives. For the reason that institute attained autonomous standing in 2011, the curriculum has undergone about 8 structured revisions to maintain tempo with evolving technological and {industry} necessities. The institute at present gives 6 minor diploma programmes in rising know-how areas, permitting college students to pursue further tutorial publicity past their core self-discipline.
Final result-based schooling is now extensively adopted on paper. The place do Indian engineering faculties nonetheless battle in translating outcomes into measurable {industry} and analysis readiness?
Final result-based schooling has actually introduced better readability to curriculum planning and evaluation practices. Most engineering establishments at the moment are in a position to articulate programme outcomes and align them with course outcomes systematically.
The true problem lies in guaranteeing that these outcomes translate into demonstrable abilities. Skills corresponding to engineering design, interdisciplinary considering and analysis orientation can’t be developed purely by means of classroom educating or standard examinations. They require sustained engagement with laboratories, design tasks and real-world issues.
At VNRVJIET, in step with the Nationwide Schooling Coverage 2020, experiential studying is instantly embedded into the curriculum. College students undertake a compulsory internship through the second yr and programs corresponding to field-based mission work, industry-oriented mini tasks and a two-phase main mission within the closing yr guarantee steady engagement with actual engineering issues. As well as, laboratory programs embrace course-based tasks in order that college students usually translate theoretical ideas into sensible purposes. To reinforce this, the Institute has carried out revolutionary teaching-learning pedagogies corresponding to WIT-WIL, Lab Protocol, Story Board, POGIL and many others. Finally, outcomes change into significant solely when college students can translate theoretical understanding into sensible engineering options.
Establishments are underneath stress to steadiness employability with long-term mental depth. How ought to engineering schooling keep away from turning into overly placement-driven with out dropping relevance?
Employability is vital, however it shouldn’t change into the only measure of educational success. Engineering schooling should put together graduates not just for their first job, but additionally for careers that demand adaptability, curiosity and steady studying.
In the long term, employability is often a consequence of sturdy tutorial foundations, relatively than the place to begin of curriculum design. Establishments that preserve a robust concentrate on basic information and analytical considering typically produce graduates who’re higher ready to adapt to a altering technological world.
We should attempt to preserve this steadiness by encouraging college students to take part in innovation actions, interdisciplinary tasks and student-driven technical communities that foster experimentation and collaborative studying. Presently, VNRVJIET has 12 lively scholar technical chapters and innovation teams, which offer platforms for college students to discover concepts past the formal curriculum. The Institute actively promotes innovation and start-up tradition among the many scholar neighborhood which is obvious from the 25 start-ups hosted on the VJ Hub facility and likewise offering seed-fund of Rs 5 lakh to promising concepts and ideas.
You might have labored extensively to bridge academia and {industry}. In your view, what structural adjustments are nonetheless lacking in Indian faculties to allow significant utilized analysis relatively than episodic collaborations?
India has made encouraging progress in strengthening {industry}–academia interplay. Nevertheless, a lot of the engagement nonetheless stays episodic, typically restricted to internships, visitor lectures or short-term collaborative actions.
Collaboration turns into actually significant when establishments and firms transfer from transactional engagement to long-term information partnerships. Such partnerships permit either side to collectively establish analysis issues and work collectively on know-how improvement over an prolonged interval. At VNRVJIET, we’ve got been steadily strengthening such engagement by means of collaborative analysis initiatives, industry-supported laboratories and internship programmes that expose college students to sensible engineering challenges. The institute at present has about 85 collaborations by means of MoUs and joint initiatives, enabling college and college students to work on actual technological issues. When these collaborations mature into sustained partnerships, they contribute not solely to utilized analysis but additionally to extra related and experiential engineering schooling.
As principal of VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering & Know-how, how do you entice, retain and inspire high-quality college at a time when tutorial management and analysis expertise are underneath rising pressure nationwide?
College members are crucial asset of any tutorial establishment. Whereas compensation and infrastructure are necessary, my expertise means that motivation is influenced simply as strongly by the tutorial setting by which they work.
At VNRVJIET, we concentrate on constructing a tradition that values educating excellence, analysis engagement {and professional} improvement. We encourage our college to take part in conferences, analysis collaborations and improvement programmes so they continue to be actively engaged with developments of their respective fields. The Institute offers incentives for analysis tasks, publications and consultancy.
At current, round 60 per cent of our college members maintain doctoral levels and lots of are actively concerned in analysis publications, funded tasks {and professional} actions. The institutional tradition is equally necessary. When college members really feel that their concepts are revered they usually have the liberty to innovate in educating and analysis, they develop a robust sense of possession.
With Trade 4.0 reshaping abilities necessities, what ought to engineering leaders prioritise extra urgently: curriculum reform, college re-skilling, governance overhaul or a redefinition of institutional success metrics and why?
All these areas are interconnected, however college re-skilling might be essentially the most pressing precedence. Curriculum reform turns into significant solely when college are snug educating rising applied sciences and guiding college students in new areas.
At VNRVJIET, in step with the AICTE initiatives for college reskilling, the school are sponsored for AICTE-Trade Fellowship, AICTE-QIP-PG Certificates programmes, ATAL FDPs, NPTEL Certification and many others. Engineering schooling is evolving quickly with developments in synthetic intelligence, automation and data-driven techniques. College should due to this fact have common publicity to {industry} practices, analysis developments and new pedagogical approaches. As soon as college are geared up with up to date information and abilities, curriculum reform and broader institutional adjustments naturally comply with.
