Industry-oriented courses, good placement record and innovative teaching-learning methodology has placed SRKR Engineering College among the top 100 institutions of the country, says Dr G P Saradhi Varma, Principal, Sagi Rama Krishnam Raju (SRKR) Engineering College, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).
What prominent challenges a private engineering institutions like yours is faced with?
The biggest challenge for the private engineering institutions is to change the perception of education stakeholders and build reputation. Private engineering colleges are deprived of the funding benefits and various types of assistance from the Government. Despite the good quality facilities and infrastructure, SRKR faces the scarcity of quality students as we are allowed to admit the students through EAMCET and ECET only.
If the SRKR is allowed to admit the students through JEE Main, it would be beneficial for the college. The number of private engineering colleges mushrooming at a rapid rate leads to downfall in the quality of education. NIRF ranking by the Government helped the institutions to cope up with this situation.
What are the innovations introduced by SRKR Engineering College to boost learning and employability of students?
SRKR Engineering College has introduced innovative teaching-learning methodologies with introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), IIT Madras NPTEL online Lectures and Course assignments, IIT e-Yantra Robotic Assignments, ZF Innovation Online Assignments, Vlip Moodle online learning, Google Class Room for online assignments, 24×7 Digital Learning Centre etc. SRKR is recognised as Skill Development Centre (SDC) by Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) and NASSCOM, as part of this, the college is offering skill development and technology training courses to the students.
The college is also selected as one of the Centres of Excellence by APSSDC, IUCEE EPICS Partner Institution for Purdue University Design Thinking Programme; recognised as CISCO Networking Academy by CISCO, India; Mozilla Campus Club by Mozilla, USA to organise various skill development programs, certification courses, training courses.
We have established an i-Hub (Industry, Innovation, and Incubation) centre within the campus aimed to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among students. SRKR has also collaborated with 64 reputed Industries/Organisations/International Universities for conducting training programmes, internships, and student exchange programmes.
What are the achievements of SRKR Engineering College in students’ placement?
Experienced faculty members of training and placement cell at SRKR Engineering College have developed an ecosystem that helps students to be industry-ready and employable. Over 50 companies including the big names like Yahoo, SAP, IBM, HSBC, TCS, HCL etc visit the campus every year to recruit the students. Since last 20 years, the college has 100 per cent placement that helped it to secure first position in Andhra Pradesh. Another achievement of the college is that seven students have been selected for placement in abroad by Panasonic R&D, Malaysia, with a package of Rs 25 lakhs per annum.
Are you also having some foreign collaborations?
The institute has successfully completed the collaborative research projects with Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands; University of Technology, Sydney, Australia and with University of Virginia School of Medicine, USA. We have another on-going research project on Dissecting Autism Trajectories in Longitudinal Electronic Health Records in collaboration with Ben-Gourin University. SRKR has signed 20 MoUs with International Universities for internships, student and staff exchange programmes, collaborative research activities etc.
