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2. Improving Governance of Institutions
In order to encourage greater flexibility and autonomy, there is a need to
progressively do away with the system of affiliation of engineering institutions/
colleges to universities. Where feasible, they should be given full autonomy. To attain
greater transparency and accountability, it should be made compulsory for all
engineering institutions to display information about their buildings, labs, faculty,
intake of students, performance of students, recognition status and placements, on
their websites. As emphasised by us repeatedly, appointments of Heads of Institutions
must be made through the process of a Search Committee that has an independent
Chair and is at an arm's length from the government. The direct involvement of
administrative ministries in the process can result in unfortunate situations.
3. Attracting and Retaining Faculty
The most serious challenge in engineering education is the dearth of well-qualified
faculty. Several measures must be undertaken in this direction:
- Institutions should be encouraged to create adjunct positions and invite
professionals from industry and research institutions to participate in the
teaching process.
- The criterion of holding a PhD for teaching undergraduate students may be
relaxed to Master's degrees which are specifically designed with more course
work in lieu of thesis. Special efforts should be made at the undergraduate
level to identify and motivate those who have the potential as well as the
inclination towards teaching.
- Incentives like better salary, modern infrastructure, better living and working
environment, possibility of secondment to industry during vacations should be
made available.
- Shortage of faculty could also be overcome by innovative use of Information
& Communication Technology and Open Educational Resources (OER) by
leveraging the content available from the best universities across the world.
- Several initiatives need to be undertaken to improve training and professional
development of the faculty. A two-week teacher induction training course
should be made compulsory. A one-day regional workshop on
teaching/learning processes should be arranged as a part of the academic
calendar. Course development should be made an integral part of the training
programmes conducted by Academic Staff Colleges. Better opportunities may
be created for continuing education using the distance mode.
4. Curriculum Reform
The current curriculum should be modified to provide greater flexibility, interdisciplinary
perspective and choice of electives. The focus in the teaching/learning
process should be on integrating skills such as problem solving and logical reasoning,
process orientation, learning ability, English communication and programming
fundamentals. Industry participation to discuss real life case studies should be
encouraged. Laboratory courses must be revamped to develop a healthy attitude
towards experimental work. Environment must be created to encourage students to
participate in co-curricular activities.
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