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The New Normal: Are the Engineering Institutes becoming future-ready?

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Engineering Institutes (1)

Higher education in the engineering space needs to focus on industry-standard curriculums. Namrata Hazarika from the Elets News Network (ENN) writes on how engineering institutions are making students ready for the future job market.

T he COVID 19 pandemic brought in a new set of challenges in front of the higher education system. Remaining resilient and focusing on mitigating the challenges has been the top priority for the education fraternity. The new normal scenario in the engineering sector is pushing educational institutions to revamp themselves and strive hard to build excellence in education, especially in the technical fields.

Current Challenges in Engineering institutions

Dr Reeba Korah, Professor & Dean, Alliance College of Engineering and Design, said, “Sailing through the pandemic for almost 18 months, some educational institutions such as private universities, institutions of national reputation, and standalone institutions have strived hard to be digitally compatible with the situations that arose due to the new normal. However, many public universities with an enormous number of affiliated institutions are still struggling to cope with the situation.”

The need to build digital connectivity is a significant challenge. For instance, the implementation of digital learning in higher education is picking up gradually. “Most of the tier-1 and quality focussed institutions moved to online platforms of their convenience to ensure adequate student engagement without affecting the pre-scheduled sessions,” Korah said.

Digital learning has created learning gaps in students. Hundreds of engineers who graduated are not able to find jobs as they don’t possess the required skills, which the industry needs now. The question is how can we prepare our graduating engineers for future jobs? Engineers lag in digital skills related to artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science and wireless technologies among others. In this context, Shekhar Sanyal, Country Head and Director of Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) India, said, “We are passing through a pandemic which has changed the market scenario. 2020 and 2021 were tough years, however, we anticipate a rebound in the economy and thereby jobs in the next two years. Job applicants need to understand that additional qualifications and broader understanding of the market and non-technical skills will play a major role in their ability to get a job.”

Most of the engineering institutes or colleges need to be equipped with modern facilities and invest in infrastructure development. There should be updated curriculums and course structures. Training the faculty is a must so that they can motivate students to build confidence and focus. Apart from IITs and NITs, most engineering institutions are providing average teachings. A competitive mindset should be developed among engineers to be able to cope up with current industry requirements. Focusing on practical skills should be the priority of the engineering institutions rather than imparting fundamental theories to the students.

“The significant change we observe is the substantive requirement of new-age technical skills, coding skills, and soft skills irrespective of their core specializations.” Korah also added and said there is a need to focus on outcome-based education, which evaluates the skills acquired during the study and creates new knowledge.

Role of National Education Policy

In this case, the National Education Policy (NEP) will play a critical role. The government is focusing, by and large, to implement NEP throughout the country. It will be done in a phased manner and hopefully, the NEP will bring potential results in the next 4-5 years. “The new National Education Policy likely will create awareness in society about the importance of outcome-based education. Future generations will benefit from the changes. At Alliance College of Engineering and Design, we practice outcome-based education which prompts us to upgrade our curriculum and syllabi based on the current industry needs and deliver the same in a project-based/problem-solving learning mode. The core problem-solving strategy we follow is ‘Design Thinking’,” Korah added.

Campus Placement

The COVID pandemic has hit the world adversely. As a result, there have been disruptions in the hiring process for engineers. Many companies deferred the hiring process of freshers due to the uncertain business environment. The trends are changing fast in 2021, the experts think that it is difficult to on board several thousand people at a time remotely. Covid 19 pandemic has a long-lasting impact on the hiring process.

According to data available with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the campus placement in engineering colleges dropped significantly in the academic year 2020-21. Around 59,494 students were able to bag jobs. It was the lowest since 2012-13 with around 63,483 found jobs during the period. Nikhil Jain, CEO & Co founder Foreign Admits also said, “The syllabus should be shorter and crisp. As per the notifications by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and to give the students a shot at placements, the syllabus was significantly reduced and the credits available for project and fieldwork were fulfilled digitally. This didn’t affect the IT industry as much but the core branches like Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering took a big hit. Since a lot of practical coursework was completed through the online module, the students weren’t industry-ready. This seriously affected their employability.”

“A recent report by Naukri.com for the 2020-21 placement season highlighted how about 66 percent of students who got jobs did not receive their offer letters, while 44 percent faced deferred joining dates after being hired. The report also highlighted how another 33 percent of students did not hear back from the employer about the status of their employment,” Jain added.

In addition, these things will change once the job market opens up. The students should focus on subjects that have lucrative opportunities in the 21st century. Areas like automation and robotics, data science and data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, renewable energy engineering, civil and mechanical engineering as well as biomedical engineering will be high on demand. The students should focus on the skills that are currently on demand to become future-ready.

 

Internationalisation helping schools and institutions to survive in the global market

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Dr. Prem Das Maheshwari

The main aim to make the schools match the global standards is to earn sufficient revenue, secure national recognition and build international reputation, says Dr Prem Maheshwari, Business Director for South Asia, D2L Asia to Elets News Network (ENN).

Internationalisation is a strategic concept that has been increasingly adopted by tertiary institutes. Over the past three years, 84% of higher education institutions have identified an increase in the level of importance of internationalisation. Today, the practice of bringing the school into the international market and competing on the global sphere is driven by the end goal of increasing revenue, securing national recognition and building international reputation.

Internationalisation helps to expand schools and institutions into the international market. This is done by recruiting students from different countries, tweaking the curriculum to fit an international context, closing the geographical gap by building international campuses and scholars exchange programmes, and increasing research and education collaborations with institutions regionally and internationally.

Internationalisation increases academic and degree mobility in many countries, but there is much controversy surrounding the topic, especially regarding diversity, equity and inclusion. Studies show that the positive effect of internationalisation only reaches a small student population. Moreover, inclusion is often overlooked in the curriculum, despite the large number of international students from diverse cultures and backgrounds.

This dichotomy between greater academic opportunities and lower access to a diverse, inclusive and equal education can be addressed through innovative solutions.

Optimising resource allocation for greater equity

Higher education is becoming increasingly commercialised. As economic goals take precedence over more altruistic rationales, stakeholders might open new offshore campuses despite funding challenges. This profit-driven approach to administration spreads resources more thinly across the board, leading to shortages in terms of qualified manpower, financing and educational resources. This can greatly impact the quality of education delivered to students across the board, raising the issue of equity in tertiary institutions.

It is possible to bring equity to internationalisation processes by harnessing edtech tools to scale education. Edtech tools can support the internationalisation process by optimising resource allocation. For instance, the emergence of the virtual classroom addresses the shortage of human capital as it facilitates partnerships with educators on existing campuses, or even other institutions for the joint delivery of lessons. This ensures that both onshore and offshore campus branches receive the same quality of education, in the most economic way possible.

Moreover, the utilisation of learning management systems (LMS) as a platform allows for virtual classrooms that enables increased class sizes and student intake without having to provision for additional seats in lecture theatres.

Even beyond the internationalisation of higher education, there is a shortage of qualified teachers. A recent projection by UNESCO reports the necessity of scaling education due to the ageing faculty population. By 2030, it is projected that 68.8 million new teachers will need to be recruited for every child to be educated properly globally.

This impossible figure can be reduced by increasing the mobility of current educators or by scaling class sizes. An increased adoption of innovative edtech tools like online learning platforms makes it possible to do both, allowing more students to afford and access their degrees.

Bridging the geographical gap to facilitate inclusion

Geography is a barrier of entry for many students that are not mobile, such as differently-abled students or those living in rural areas. These students might miss out on many higher education opportunities as they do not have the ability to travel to the university’s physical campus.

Moreover, internationalisation is not inclusive for developing countries that do not align with the economic goals of the university. Universities might choose not to offer courses in countries that are projected to have a lower profit margin. This stems from the shortage of resources as well – the high costs of setting up offshore campuses, coupled with manpower issues, might make it difficult for internationalisation of higher education to be inclusive.

Full-service edtech solutions such as the Brightspace LMS can incentivise universities to internationalise into emerging economies at a minimal cost. It can also bring higher education closer to those who are not mobile. Brightspace offers a suite of eLearning tools under a single platform, from training resources to technical support, that can facilitate setting up online campuses anywhere in the world.

Universities can offer virtual degrees in many countries despite geographical barriers, using their existing pool of resources and saving the additional cost of building a physical campus. This creates a win-win situation – degree mobility is made inclusive regardless of physical geographical location and internationalised universities can reap the benefits of cultural diversity.

Integrating diversity into the international curriculum

While diversity is a huge draw in the internationalisation of higher education, the presence of diversity does not automatically translate to the integration of diverse cultures into the student’s lives. A 2017 study points out that the benefits of a global campus do not naturally arise due to the presence of international students. The integration of international students in communities and classes is a primary factor in the internationalisation.

Students will not be enriched by diversity if institutions do not encourage it. Generally, while both domestic and international students acknowledge the importance of social integration, they have limited experiences with people of different backgrounds. A whopping 48% of domestic students reported little experience of mixing socially with people from different backgrounds and 58% of them expressed dissatisfaction with global opportunities provided. The benefits of an internationalised, diverse campus are not being realised to its full extent.

Moreover, the same study finds that most research regarding integration revolves around mixed nationality friendships and group work without exploring other aspects of diversity. International students are also often treated as a single entity, without regard for the differentiation in country or region. The concept of diversity in tertiary institutions is often superficial and international students can definitely be more effectively integrated with the domestic student population, especially in academic and intercultural contexts.

This can be attributed to a homogeneity in international curriculum that does not leave room for students to reflect on their intercultural experiences. With LMS platforms such as the Brightspace LMS , educators from global branches are able to collaborate virtually to tweak the curriculum. They can also be used to engage students in extra activities like inter-branch cultural exchanges that foster a deeper appreciation of different cultures.

Internationalisation is a relatively new concept that holds many opportunities for higher education students around the globe, but it would be naive to say that it is a perfect strategy. With the implementation and continued advancement of edtech tools, internationalisation can grow to be more equal, diverse and inclusive.

 

The Influence of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) influences all the sectors, India’s higher education is no different. AI-based technologies are becoming popular among higher education for improving the quality of learning. Namrata Hazarika from Elets News Network (ENN) writes on the influence of Artificial Intelligence in higher education and explains why technology is critical.

Since the pandemic started in 2020, higher education is witnessing an increased need for implementing the latest technologies to provide online education. AI has the potential to automate and democratize personalized adaptive learning for students. It will help to mitigate the learning gaps and generate learning interests among students, increase learning ability, language affinity and improve learning pace.

Why is Technology critical in Higher Education?

Vaibhav Gupta, Alliances & Marketing Head, iSchoolConnect said, “With technologies like chatbots, adaptive learning platforms, virtual teaching assistants, and immersive classrooms emerging, several universities and colleges are collaborating with organizations that can help them use AI for their benefit.”

“Tools like chat bots and smart text messaging allow colleges to answer students’ queries at lightning-fast speed, keeping prospective students interested and engaged. Universities can also analyze the data of their applicants to figure out which applicants are serious about applying, how many of them deserve financial aid, and when a student may or may not submit their application,” he added.

Mentioning about platforms like ‘Knewton’, Gupta said that it uses AI to understand a student’s proficiency level, identify the gaps in their knowledge, and provide them with the relevant course material for staying on track. Meanwhile, immersive classrooms and virtual teaching assistants, like Jill at Georgia Tech, are helping students learn in a more memorable way while also saving the staff’s time and costs.

The experts believe that this kind of education platform needs to be implemented by Indian universities and colleges that focus on AI tools to assist students and faculty members. Due to the pandemic, higher education has to shift quickly to AI-based technologies but the adoption of AI in higher education is slowest in India. The universities and colleges in the higher education space need to collaborate with technology companies to empower online learning.

“AI will not only help higher education to transform student experiences, but also free up the university staff to work on and solve more demanding problems. It is essential to remember that the best results will come when we combine the strengths of AI with human ability,” Gupta added.

Shashank Shwet, Founder and CEO, ImaginXP, said, “Artificial Intelligence has acted as the main driver of emerging technologies like Big Data, Robotics, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Machine Learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT). It will continue to act as a technological innovator for the foreseeable future. AI has brought upon the big change in learning by effectively implementing social emotional learning frameworks.”

The impact of AI has changed the learning landscape recently. With the help of smart content, students can create their own lessons and do self earning. “AI is simplifying the teaching methodology through automated class management systems, analysing students’ interest in class through facial recognition. Automated grading systems will increase the objectivity of learning and can judge the performance of students. AI helps in curating personalised learning dashboards, based on current knowledge level and provides recommendations,” Shwet added.

In a similar line, Dr. Sanjay Govind Patil, Associate Dean and Director – RICS SBE Mumbai, said, “We all have observed that during Covid 19 pandemic students are able to attend classes from remote areas with the help of technology. However, most of the tools used to deliver classes in online mode are through presentations or live lectures. This immense technological transformation has served the purpose to engage students and complete the task during this trying time.”

Challenges: Adoption of AI in Universities

Are higher education able to adapt to the changing scenario and new-age learning methods? Implementation of AI in higher education comes with its own challenges. The major challenge is lack of access to upgraded technology and its implementation is a time-taking process. It’s also interesting to note that many educators have come up with creative solutions to practice interactive learning and help their students take full advantage of learning from home. AI uses a lot of high-end tools, which affects slowdown in operations. There is less alignment between technology, curriculum and instruction from educators. It requires potential planning, design-thinking and training among educators.

Dr S.S. Mantha, Chancellor, K L Deemed University, said, “Many universities and colleges have entered the digital space by using learning management systems (LMS) for content sharing, assessments, assignments, etc. Bringing AI into current LMS systems can help universities and colleges to increase the student participation through active learning methods and also create a personalized learning experience. However, the technology is in its nascent stage and is evolving continuously. Well established universities are experimenting with AI technologies and paving the way for others.”

He added, “Although democratization of AI is ongoing, one of the challenges we encounter in adoption of readymade AI technology as it needs high investment and therefore, the usage of AI has not reached all tiers of institutions.”

Kavita Khanna, Head of Department Computer Science & Engineering, School of Engineering, The NorthCap University added that AI-based deep learning techniques require a large number of processing resources to complete the tasks. “And it’s always been found that there is insufficient computing capacity to implement these AI techniques. The second issue comes from the internet connectivity at home and campuses. Feeding large amounts of data to AI algorithms would need the personal data of students and faculty which can create privacy and security issues. There is and will always be a strong need for emotional intelligence which AI, at least in the current scenario, lacks. However, it has a long way to go before it can fully meet its potential,” she added.

Industry stalwarts believe AI involves processing a huge amount of data, which can hamper security. Currently, the protection of personal information of students, teachers and parents is a challenge. Cyber-attack is a major issue in online learning and restricts implementation of AI freely.

Dr. Sujata Shahi, Vice Chancellor, IILM University, Gurugram, added, “As covid pandemic stuck, Indian universities used the best practices and modified the learning method to suit the requirements of Indian students. Higher education segment has to enrol industry experts in AI to create new, modify existing or curate novel curricula in the field of AI, both from the management and from technical perspective.”

It is clear that implementation of AI in India’s higher education will take some time to fully incorporate it in the education system. The sector can boom only if the higher educational institutes deal with the potential challenges and show confidence in using technology in imparting learning and teaching.

Mandates of a Health Education Curriculum for Schools

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Mr Vinod Malhotra

The inherently dynamic landscape of education is undergoing a definitional change. From the old paradigm that lay exclusive emphasis on numeracy, literacy, and memory retention, the education world is moving on to a multi-disciplinary curricular structure in which – alongside academic rigour – co-scholastic activities such as sports, music, dance, and arts are becoming integral to school time.

An extra dimension to this transformation has been added by the IT revolution. The emergence of new technologies with high applicability in education has influenced pedagogies and learning outcomes in a positive manner. Yet, despite so much progress, one important aspect of human development has been neglected or relegated until the Covid-pandemic came as a rude awakening. This aspect is: health and well-being.

Imperatives of Creating A Healthy Society

Good health and well-being are the sine qua non of all human endeavours. Every nation must build a strong health infrastructure and create a favourable ratio of the overall population to the number of doctors and para-medics. More importantly, there must exist a system by which every citizen is sensitized on broad parameters of health and preventive measures. A sick citizenry is unproductive and a big user/waster of precious national resources.

Also Read:- Vinod Malhotra, Director – Corporate Relations, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions calls to redefine education

The beginning of creating a healthy society must indeed be made at the school level. Every school must prepare a structured Health Education Curriculum that addresses specific health and fitness needs of students. These may vary from rural schools to the schools in the urban setting. The big and the metro cities perhaps require a more comprehensive document that takes care of health issues linked with lifestyle, eating habits, sleep disorders and perhaps of certain addictions that are more likely to happen in an urban milieu. Excessive usage of screen time is also posing a serious health hazard and this can create problems that are very likely to become chronic, if not addressed in time. An elaborate health curriculum should cover all these aspects.

Components of a Health Education Curriculum

A standard and well-structured Health Education Curriculum must necessarily include the following components:

1. Nutrition and Fitness
2. Health Hygiene and Wellness
3. Disease Control and Prevention
4. Safety and First Aid
5. Community and Environmental Health
6. Mental and Emotional Health
7. Substance Abuse and Prevention
8. Adolescent Education

These are the mandatory verticals that need to be incorporated in the school health curriculum. Excessive use and immersion into IT space and digital technology, accompanied with extended screen time, wrong body postures and diminishing use of the natural neural system are leading to serious ailments. All these factors may have huge adverse impact on the mental and physical health of the children in the long run. We will have to create a separate structure and protocol for ‘Digital-Detox’.
The importance of health with respect to all age groups need not be overemphasized. Interestingly, in our physiological system practically everything happens in an automation mode and unless some disease or disability strikes us, we do not take note. Children with fresh, flexible and relatively healthier bodies, tend to ignore these signals more than their senior counterparts. These, therefore, can lead to habits that may not be very healthy in nature, and can cause problems later in life.

The primary objective of any form of education is to acquire knowledge. “Know Thyself” is the main mantra both in the physical and metaphysical context. It is indeed mandatory for all of us to know our body, mind and soul in their entirety. That alone will help us to live a life that is full, productive and socially relevant.

There is no better place to start this immersion other than a school.

By Vinod Malhotra, Chairman, Academic Council, Saamarthya Teachers Training Academy of Research, Ghaziabad

Manipal Global Launches Axis Bank-Manipal School School of Data Analytics

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Manipal Global

Manipal Global, a leading education services’ organization, has launched the Axis Bank-Manipal School of Data Analytics recently. The program aims to provide jobs in the data science and analytics space.

Manipal Global has partnered with Axis Bank to provide training in Data analytics. Speaking on the collaboration, Balaji N, President– Business Intelligence Unit (BIU), Axis Bank commented, “We are delighted to launch the School of Data Analytics in partnership with Manipal Global. The bank is a firm believer in the power of data analytics and uses the same for making business decisions across departments.

“This has created a growing and consistent demand for talented people, who can drive these data analytics initiatives. We are looking at this partnership as a strategic approach to attract and on-board data engineers, analysts and scientists who have a passion for data analytics and are also business ready to start contributing to these roles,” he added.

Robin Bhowmik, Chief Business Officer, Manipal Global said “We are excited to launch the Axis Bank Manipal School of Data Analytics. This is a one-of-a-kind program that provides individuals a platform to transform themselves and become job-ready with the necessary tech and problem-solving skills. This strategic partnership with Axis Bank will enable us to bring on board industry-ready data analysts and accelerate the bank’s digital transformation.”

The School of Data Analytics offers a 3-month online program which includes a 2-week live project. Commencing this month, the first batch will be trained in fundamental concepts and tools of data science and analytics, Big Data, and machine learning with python. Students will get to apply their tech knowledge and use tools and concepts across multiple contexts.

The program is designed for fresh graduates and individuals with up to three years of work experience in tech/analytics roles. The curriculum will be taught online by some of the best faculty from Manipal. This is a great opportunity for engineers and candidates from mathematics and statistics streams as the course offers job assurance to its students.

JEE Advanced 2021 registration will end today

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
JEE Advanced 2021 registration

The JEE Advance 2021 entrance exam for taking admission to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will end today. The candidates can apply with their form by today itself. It can be submitted through the official website jeeadv.ac.in.

The online registration for JEE Advanced 2021 commenced on September 16. However, the examination will be conducted on October 3.

Students who have qualified JEE Main can apply for JEE Advanced 2021. More than 2.5 lakh students have qualified the JEE Main.

The admit card will be available for JEE Advanced 2021 from September 25 onwards. The results are expected on October 15. JEE Advanced 2021 registration fee for general category is Rs 2,800 and Rs 1,400 is for SC, ST and PwD category.

BrainGymJr- an EdTech platform raises funds to make learning engaging

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
BrainGymJr- an EdTech platform

BrainGymJr, an EdTech platform that offers brain development exercises for children between age 5-11 years. The company has raised Rs 2.5 crore in its angel round funding in July 2021, which has been utilized to improve skills and growth. The company has launched a fully automated portal for it as well.

BrainGymJr helps children to sharpen their logic, language, reasoning and math skills with real-life reasoning and examples. The company is offering curriculums that are age-appropriate and aligned with learning objectives. The company offers online exercises such as crosswords, grid questions and other interesting stuff based on the subjects like Mathematics, English and other real-world skills.

It is helping students to learn at their own pace and the instant solutions are making the students get complete learning and knowledge.

Also read: Edtech company Tinkerly raises Rs 6.5 Cr led by investors

Vidur Garg, Founder, BrainGymJr said, “Our motto at BrainGymJr is to teach children ‘How’ to Think. We believe in the power of building a strong foundation of logic, reasoning & critical thinking in early years. Through our exercises on BrainGymJr we want to make learning and application a daily habit for children.Moreover, we want the entire experience to be fun and engaging. We are thrilled to have like minded investors supporting us. Our dream is to help children across the globe get better prepared for real life opportunities.”

BrainGymJr is backed by 10 prominent founders, angel investors and HNIs in India including Ashok Bhavnani (Sapiens, ex Ibexi),Rajiv Dadlani (Consort capital, Investor in Wellness Forever) and Shankar Nath (Junio, ex Paytm).

Commenting on the launch of BrainGymJr, Rajiv Dadlani said, “BrainGymJr has a universal offering aimed at making children smarter by actually applying concepts learned in school. The fun formats, daily nudges and rewards keep children engaged while creating discipline. Armed with a great product that comes with a fresh approach to learning,the team is well poised to scale the BrainGymJr platform across geographies”

Colleges, Polytechnics in Haryana to reopen for students

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Haryana to reopen for students

The colleges and polytechnics reopen for students in the state of Haryana. The government has allowed schools to reopen with strict adherence.

According to the SOPs released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it stated, there should be strict following of Covid 19 protocols within the premises of colleges and polytechnics.

The state government has extended the Mahamari alert-Surakshit Haryana for another fortnight. It is between September 20, 5 am till October 4, 5 am.

Also read: Haryana reopens schools, staff yet to get vaccinated completely

“Department of Higher Education and Department of Technical Education, Haryana will release guidelines for implementation of these orders immediately,” it adds.

A decision is yet to be taken on reopening of residential universities on October 15. The Universities will conduct online classes as usual. All coaching institutions, training institutes and libraries have been given permission to open and also need to follow social distancing rules.

Uttarakhand to reopen primary schools on September 21

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Uttarakhand primary schools

Uttarakhand Primary Schools will reopen on September 21. The school will start for classes 1-5 under strict COVID guidelines. The government is slowly taking up steps to reopen schools across the country.

After the Covid 19 pandemic affected us, the school was shut down. Currently, the primary session will reopen. The classes will be conducted only for three hours a day.

An order issued by the department of school education recently stated that the students will not be allowed to bring food to the school. The schools need to be properly sanitized and staff as well as non-staff members should be wearing masks and maintain social distancing norms.

Also read: Uttarakhand reopened the schools for Classes 9 to 12 on Monday

Both online and offline education will be provided to the students.

In fact, a nodal officer will be appointed for maintaining Covid protocols within the school premises and ensuring guidelines are followed strictly.

Technological development is critical for Higher Education

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Dr. Ravi Gupra

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is helping to transform the higher education system by introducing technological tools that can enhance the user experience. AI is slowly penetrating the education sector and providing solutions for online learning during the pandemic. It is helping higher education in improving learning techniques and quality of education.

Artificial Intelligence can automate everything like the admission process, grading, student performance tracking, identifying knowledge gaps, including others. After the Covid outbreak, AI-enabled exam proctoring tools ensured smooth conduct of examinations globally, saving the education system from sudden death. The challenge is that higher education is slowly adapting to technology.

Currently, there is a lack of access to upgraded technology and its implementation is a time-taking process. It’s also interesting to note that many educators have come up with creative solutions to practice interactive learning and help their students take full advantage of learning from home. AI uses a lot of high-end tools, which affects slowdown in operations. There is less alignment between technology, curriculum and instruction from educators. It requires potential planning, design-thinking and training among educators.

In this issue, we have covered the influence of ‘Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education’ and talked about how technology is playing a critical role in it.

Meanwhile, the engineering institutes need to focus on being equipped with modern facilities and invest in infrastructure development. There should be an updated curriculum and course structures for engineering institutions. Training the faculty is a must so that they can motivate students to build confidence and focus. Focusing on practical skills should be the priority of the engineering institutions rather than imparting fundamental theories to the students.

Areas like automation and robotics, data science and data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, renewable energy engineering, civil and mechanical engineering as well as biomedical engineering will be high on demand. This is how engineering institutes can make engineers future-ready. Our feature story portrays the current picture of engineering institutions and its challenges.

In fact, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 will help the next generation to thrive and compete in this digital age. One of the key thrust areas of NEP is to encourage high R&D investments from government and private sectors. The issue enlightens our readers on the latest developments of higher
education.

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