Director-cum-Principal, Swami Parmanand College of Engineering & Technology
Director-cum-Principal, Swami Parmanand College of Engineering & Technology
Institutes across the world are coming up with new ways of imparting education. How are you bringing innovation in pedagogy at your institute?
Our institution has strong pedagogical philosophy to mark and solve the problems. We use many innovative practices and effective methods of teaching and learning through technology. Process various audio visual aids, gathering enormous technical information online and study material help the students become better engineers.
How important is a strong academia-industry linkage for an engineering institute and how it is beneficial to the students?
As we have our own industrial house and have many educational institutions, we are well aware of relationship between an educational institute and an industry. Only a good linkage between industry and academic organisations can make better technical graduates. It will give us better knowledge about the current requirement of the market, what problems they are facing, what are weak sectors and what are the areas of improvement. This will not only provide the students, a graduation degree, but will also help them in developing social skills, communication skills and most importantly innovation skills so that both the industry and academia are mutually benefited.
| Institutes should encourage students and faculty to work on different projects and give feedback to industry |
Please share some of the unique initiatives taken up by your institute? How can the gap between industry and academia be bridged?
We have introduced ICT-enabled innovative ways to give directions to students. We have tie-up with IIT Bombay and are acting as a resource centre for other institutes and schools by providing certified courses, which make teaching and learning effective through technology. Seminars and conferences are conducted on topics related to industry. We have introduced video conferencing and audio visual aids and are providing notes online to students. Academia’s support can benefit industry by solving its problems. For this, industry should start projects in collaboration with academia. Institutes should also encourage students and faculty to work on these projects and give feedback to industry.
Students complain that most engineering institutes pay more attention towards imparting theoretical knowledge rather than giving practical assignments. Has this trend changed in last few years?
No, this is not true as our institution always lays emphasis on giving projects and assignments related to industry so that students can become skilled professionals. We are organising industrial visits for students so that they can get the idea of work environment of industry. Industrial training of six weeks and six months is already in curriculum. We have started teaching through visual labs to benefit students.
How has been your college’s placement in recent years? Do you think there is sufficient demand in industry for
engineering graduates?
Our college has achieved fifth rank in placement in all the Punjab Technical University affiliated colleges. Every year, we have 80 to 90 percent placement. Our students get placed in top companies with good packages. With the changing job market, there is still demand of skilled workforce having good professional communication and technical skills. Apart from demand of engineers in public and private sector, there is vast requirement of engineers across the globe.
