Soon, lessons on Indian values, ethics for B Tech students

Engineering students will have to undergo a six-week internship, take a paper on environmental studies and also learn Indian values and ethics.

Chapters on traditional knowledge and ancient wisdom in science and technology will also be part of the revised curriculum for B Tech programmes released by the government on Wednesday.

The revised curriculum, developed by an expert team comprising faculty members from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Industry after a gap of more than 15 years, has "drastically" reduced the hours of studies for undergraduate programmes in engineering and provides for more "activity-oriented" courses to enable students to become industry-ready.

The credit hours for all undergraduate engineering and technology programmes have been brought down to 160 from 200 under the updated curriculum with provisions for "continuous evaluation" of the students' progress.

A three-week mandatory induction program has also been introduced for the first year B Tech students to help them "adjust to the new environment" as they come with diverse thoughts, backgrounds and preparations.

"A novel concept of Virtual Laboratories has also been introduced in the model curriculum for engineering. The concerns over innovation and research have well been addressed under the revised curriculum. It will transform engineering education in India," said Anil Sahashrabudhe, chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

A student will now be eligible to get an undergraduate degree (BTech) with honours or additional Minor Engineering degree if he/she completes an additional 20 credits.

"These (additional 20 credits) could be acquired through Swayam, a massively open online course platform created for the benefit of students," Sahashrabudhe added.

The revised model curriculum for postgraduate courses in engineering will have a total of 68 credits.

"A large number of M Tech students are opting for teaching jobs after completion of their programmes. Under the revised curriculum, such students will devote their time to theory in the first year and in the second year, they will work at higher educational institutions," said M P Punia, vice chairman, AICTE.

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar rolled out the revised curriculum. He also unveiled an updated curriculum for management programmes.

"The minimum number of credits for award of MBA/ PGDM course is 102 credits," said Sahashrabudhe.

An AICTE official said that the technical institutes can either adopt the revised curriculum or develop their own by incorporating course contents based on the local needs.

"In any case, the core theme of the updated curriculum has to be adopted by all institutes," the official added.

Javadekar said the curriculum for all technical programmes, including management, will be updated every year to keep them at a par with international standards.

The minister said that the four boards of apprenticeship training (Boats), which functions under the HRD ministry, will provide internship opportunities to about 5 lakh BTech students this year.