TIT Group of institutions: Benchmarking engineering education management
T echnocrats – TIT Group of Institutions was established in 1999 with an aim to offer world class research-oriented education. The institute is managed by eminent academicians and visionaries. It is one of the most prestigious and renowned educational groups of Central India and known for its academic excellence.
Our vision is to enable students to achieve their full potential by offering world class education. It also will help them to think and act as global citizens. We strive for global reach, excellence, and diversity through engagement with prestigious universities, industries and countries that support our educational mission.
With four engineering courses, two pharmacy courses and one business administration course, the group has more than 15,000 enrolled students. Institutions of the group are spread over an area of 1.5 million square feet including 292 classrooms, 695 laboratories and 52 seminar and conference halls. The resource centre comprises over 2,12,000 books and more than 37,000 titles. With yearly intake of over 5,000 students, the group has a strong network of over 30,000 alumni. The group of institutes has achieved 100 per cent placement record by assisting 2,379 students in getting jobs.
The academic and industrial experience of our faculty members helped the students to get application-based learning and industry-oriented skills. We have over 1,150 faculty members from IITs, IIMs and NITs with 162 PhD professors. We also encourage studentindustry cooperative experiences that prepare a strong base for the students’ career ahead.
Sinhgad Engineering Institutes: Nurturing Skilled Technocrats
New measures in education help the students at Sinhgad Engineering Institutes to rehash their skills according to latest industry trends, says Rachana Navale- Ashtekar, Vice President (Admin), Sinhgad Technical Education Society, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).
What are the new ways of teaching incorporated in your institute?
The Audio-Visual content under “K-point Programme” help students to ease the learning process and refresh the same during the exam as per the curriculum. Aspiring Minds Computer Adaptive Test (AMCAT) is conducted twice a year to know strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of each student. In order to develop quantitative aptitude and logical reasoning, training as well as online tests are conducted every semester. Along with students, development of faculty members is also essential. Teacher Advancement Programme (TAP), Train the Trainer (TTT) Programme and faculty development programmes at Singhad Institutes are conducted to bring uniformity in the teaching process.
What measures does your institute take to keep students updated about upcoming technology?
At Sinhgad Institutes, measures are taken to make students aware about the latest technologies. Few of them are:
MEASURES IN ASSOCIATION
EdX programme: An online learning platform founded by Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to nurture students’ interests and to acquire relevant technical skills.
IIT Bombay (IITB) Spoken Tutorials: The IITB Tutorials Project is about teaching and learning open source software.
Microsoft Certification: A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed with Advanced Training Institutes (ATS), New Delhi to conduct Microsoft certification program (.net) for enhancing competency skill among students.
Thermax Graduate Programme: The programme provides theory and practical s kills i n s pecific a reas o f M echanical Engineering to the graduate trainees selected by Thermax Limited.
Intel Intelligent Lab: This laboratory facility enables students for technological inventions that are compatible with Intel’s architecture-based devices in the Internet of Things (IoT).
VIDIA CUDA Teaching Centre: The centre facilitates institute’s students to attend webinars on CUDA related programming from experts in various fields.
HP Summer Training Programme: HP Ltd conducts summer training programme for undergraduates in the areas of programming techniques, network management and security, embedded and robotics.
IN-HOUSE MEASURES Memorandum of Understanding (MoU): The institute has signed MoU with local companies, MNCs and foreign universities to allow our students to attend internships/short term courses.
Industry Institute Interaction Cell (IIIC): IIIC in each department conducts expert lectures on latest technology, offers industrial visits, internships (of four week duration) to students.
How do you view innovative pedagogy in the field of technical education?
Innovative Pedagogy in technical education is all about exploring and thus developing the tools that can be used by the teacher to transmit knowledge and skills to students effectively. In the Indian context, where student diversity is very dynamic, it is important to meet the needs of all the students.
Do most of the Indian B Tech students readily opt for the first jobopportunity during placements?
In most of the renowned, well established institutions, around 70 per cent of students readily opt for the first job opportunity. Out of this, 50 per cent of the students find recruitment and the remaining 20 per cent, who are not job ready, apply for certain finish school courses to make themselves job ready.
Do you think traditional engineering discipline is being eclipsed by the emerging ones?
Students today are faced with a time that has made it necessary for a non-traditional set of capabilities to aid the evolution of their careers.
Redefining Academic Excellence
The Manipal Education Group, with its heritage of excellence in higher education of 63 years, launched Manipal University, Jaipur (MUJ) in 2011 on an invitation from the Government of Rajasthan. It is a self-financed State University and is redefining academic excellence in the region. University provides excellent ambience to enhance the teaching-learning experience and to promote creativity and innovation.
MUJ, being a multi-disciplinary university, offers programmes at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level across various streams. The streams include Engineering, Architecture, Planning, Fashion and Jewellery Design, Fine Arts, Hospitality, Humanities, Journalism and Mass Communication, Basic Sciences, Law, Commerce, Computer Applications, and Management. Over 6,500 students from diverse backgrounds have already been enrolled across all programmes. A well-qualified team of faculty members with more than 50 per cent having PhD is the asset of the university.
First in India
The university’s campus is the first in India rated with LEED India Platinum and GRIHA – Five Star. It also is a zero discharge campus through rain water harvesting, waste water recycling and reuse, and ground water recharging. Water and Electricity consumption on the campus is monitored through smart metering to minimise the losses and arrive at optimum consumption levels. The University has been conferred with Digital India – Smart Campus Award by NDTVCISCO.
As the first digital campus of the country, MUJ provides academic information and support to its students through an Academic Management System (AMS). The campus is fully Wi-Fi enabled with 10 Gbps optical fibre backbone and has 100 per cent surveillance through 600 CCTV cameras.
MUJ – The New-Age University
Manipal University, Jaipur, being a newage university, has not only adopted the best practices from reputed institutions, but also initiated some innovative ones, to be ahead of the competition and provide excellence in higher education. The university tries to leverage technology in a big way. Laptops are provided to all faculties and students so that learning may continue outside the class room also. The students and faculties are encouraged to take online courses like MOOCs to enhance domain knowledge.
Education at MUJ is fully geared up in terms of its preparedness to impart the right type of skills and knowledge. The university has introduced many innovative concepts in the pedagogical process. These include open book tests, moderation of question papers, showing examination/test answer books to students and moderation of final grades.
These all bring in transparency in the evaluation process. In addition, many interdisciplinary/open elective courses are available to students wherein they can opt for credits from specialisations other than their own. Introduction of a compulsory course on “Value Education” and “Ethics” for all first year students is again an innovative step in higher education.
The university has set up an entrepreneurship cell wherein students and faculty members learn about innovation, incubation, technology transfer, patenting and IPR. MUJ has already incubated five technology companies through “Technology Business Incubation Centre”.
The effectiveness of the academiaindustry relationship underlines the use of the latest tools and techniques to make the pedagogy effective. Emphasis is made on industry component of the academic curriculum. The University offers basic and advanced training programmes to its students. It exposes them to research related in contemporary and futuristic technologies by continuous improvement and innovation. Under “Practice School Concept”, final year students have to work for their projects in the industry to get hands-on experience. It helps them in getting good placements by converting their project work/internship into jobs. The university facilitates students for short duration stints abroad under more than two dozen MOUs signed with reputed global academic institutes to expose them to the culture and work ethos and prepare them for global leadership.
Choice-Based Credit System
The university has adopted choice based credit system where students can decide their pace of learning. Students firstly have to register for courses according to their interests and capabilities. The university reviews the curriculum constantly and revision is done to reflect the latest international trends. Curriculum is designed to include skill development courses for gainful employability.
Practising Learning by Doing
With its professional courses, the university is promoting the “Learning by Doing” among its students, says Dr Vijay Gupta, Vice Chancellor, Sharda University, in an interview with Akash Tomer of Elets News Network (ENN).
W hat is the vision of Sharda University?
It is a university setup by state legislature and the vision is to provide avenues for useful education to students. By useful here we mean something that make them capable, employable and learned so that they can make their place in society.
Is there any distinct branch of engineering that your institute offers and do share its scope as far as career prospect is concerned?
We are a professional university. All the courses in engineering/technology domain, design, journalism, medicine etc are the ones which make people employable. We do offer science programmes which are designed for specific kind of jobs.
While starting a programme, we look at what are our educational goals, professional objective of the course, and what are we preparing students for? Unlike other universities, professional goal of our courses is clearly defined. For instance, we have started a programme in visual arts with a motive to nurture professionals with artistic abilities. It will help them to show creativity in their jobs.
How much job-oriented your courses are, especially in the light of latest trends and technologies taking place around the world and the education industry creating global products in terms of fresh pass outs?
Programmes at our University like Automobile Engineering, where we have tried to develop actual automobile workshop. In workshop, students work on engines, fabricate cars and test ride the cars. These are the kind of things our students showcase with the help of professional courses. At Sharda University, we believe in application oriented programmes. For example, second year students of our Computer Science and Engineering branch work on developing mobile applications. So it is largely “Learning by Doing”.
Do you think traditional engineering discipline is being eclipsed by the emerging ones?
It is happening largely in Computer Science and Engineering field. In last 40 years, the penetration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) is a prime focus of students’ interest. It is also attracting all practitioner engineers. There are no purely mechanical instruments any more. ICT is embedded in mechanical instruments. For example 50 per cent of automobile is of electronics and ICT than of metal used. For the past 30 years electronics has provided acceleration to every industry. ICT also helped the industries in reducing the product planning and manufacturing cost. Electronics and ICT permitted us to reduce metal being consumed, reduced the time and that’s why the cost of production has come down.
Do most of the Indian B Tech students readily opt for the first job-opportunity during placements? What is your view about it?
In our country, we have a very stagnant industry. There is a good number of jobs in the area of ICT rather than other branches of engineering. So, if the students are accepting the first job offers irrespective of the fact that whether the job is of their field or not, they are not doing anything wrong as they can see few people are getting jobs. The students are impatient because they are not getting the jobs of their choice but they can’t sit idle and they have to do something.
What are the latest and upcoming products in the pipeline as far as your University/ Institute is concerned? Can you share some of the prominent ones with us?
We are in the process of complete revision of the syllabus. With the approach of “Learning by Doing”, we are going to enhance multiple folds. We are having meetings for developing new ideas of how to make our programmes more practice oriented. We started scheme of six months of industry internship, we permit students to take Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). We give our students time to work on their individual products; we have found out that the students learn more while doing a job rather than studying in campus.
Accurate Institute: Fostering Innovative Learning
With its mission to impart comprehensive and innovative learning, Accurate Group of Institutes inculcate managerial and entrepreneurial skill in its students, says Poonam Sharma, Group Director, Accurate group of Institutes, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
What was your vision behind establishing the institute?
Established in 2006, today Accurate Group of Institutions is a leading name in the higher education sector. The institute offers a wide range of courses pertaining to different fields of studies. The institute’s focus is on teaching, consulting, research and management development programmes with state of the art classrooms, internet, computing facilities and seminar facilities. Accurate believes in harmonious faculty-student relationship, which fosters mutual growth. Accurate has partnerships with various foreign universities such as, University of Auckland, New Zealand and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, for student exchange programmes.
Our mission is to impart vibrant, comprehensive and innovative learning to our students enabling them to be managers, entrepreneurs, and leaders. We believe in cultivating strong cultural values and to provide an ideal teaching environment to develop students’ skills to tackle the challenges of global business environment.
Is there any distinct branch of engineering that your institute offer? What is its scope as far as career prospect is concerned?
No branch is distinct. All branches have equal value. We work hard for students of all the branches to make them employable. Career prospect depends upon the individual capability of the student. The branch or the area of study may restrict a particular scope of work, but we believe that any student if is employable, then market conditions won’t hamper his/her career.
How do you provide industry interface to make students skilled and technically sound?
We conduct training sessions for our students before they appear for employability test. Personality development programmes are being conducted time to time. Students attend the workshop with latest technologies such as R language, business analytics, big data analytics and Intelligence using TABLEAU, Cyber Security etc.
We explore all available opportunities for our students. We also invite corporate doyens to train students on the current market situation. We conduct industrial visits to enhance students’ practical learning. Our students visited various manufacturing plants like Yamaha motors, Yakult, Pepsico Food & Agro Ltd etc.
What are the steps taken by your institute to curb the Brain-Drain?
Globalisation has opened the doors for students to be a part of MNCs and foreign corporations. To acquaint students with the intricacies of operations in foreign lands, we have been taking our students on global business pilgrimage. In the past, our student along with senior faculty members have visited the following premier universities and had intensive experience of global management education:
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- University of Auckland, New Zealand
- Management Development Institute of Singapore
- National University of Singapore
We expose our students to global universities to have a hands-on experience of what life is like in corporate of these countries. Students also get a glimpse of what cultural barriers stand in their way and get an insight as how to overcome them. Students on such trips are also awarded certificates for a three day workshop which further strengthens their profiles.
Do you also have any refresher course for your faculty to keep them updated with latest trends, technology and needs of the education world?
We enhance and update our faculty’s knowledge time to time through Faculty Development Programmes (FDP). The programme helps in:
- Managing multiple roles and new responsibilities such as problem-based tutorials, case-based discussions, become mentors, and develop and evaluate new curriculum.
- Integrating latest global technology into teaching-learning process.
- Research and master latest technology based teaching skills.
- Leadership and management proficiency.
Mentoring Engineering Professionals in Sync With Industry Interface: IIE
Engineering holds big scope in India as far as career-based opportunities are concerned. But there are several professionals working in the industry without any technical degree/diploma. The Indian Institution of Engineers (IIE) is mentoring several such aspiring professionals, says Arun Saini, Co-Founder of IIE, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
Give us an overview of IIE and its vision.
The Indian Institution of Engineers is the mentor organisation for working professionals who are contributing in the field of Engineering and Technology. The IIE is one of the oldest professional institutions, established to promote, advance and update knowledge, business and practice of engineering professionals.
The institution conducts several examinations twice a year. It is for helping thousands of young aspiring professionals working in the engineering sector to obtain engineering degree/diplomas and sharpen technical knowledge.
Is there any distinct branch of engineering that your institute offers and its scope vis-a-vis career prospects are concerned?
Electrical Engineers are in high demand in India. In the recent years from domestic usage to appliances used in corporate houses there is a necessity of electricity, offering numerous opportunities to electrical engineers.
Companies like ABB, Bajaj International Private Ltd., Crompton Greaves Ltd., Siemens Ltd., Reliance Power Ltd., ONGC, BHEL), SAIL, Coal India Ltd. ,Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. ,Centre for Electronics Design and Technology and Wipro Lighting are the biggest employers hiring Electrical Engineers.
A graduate in Electrical and Electronics Engineering can opt for employment in diverse fields whether it is a PSU job, core sectors like Construction & Steel, IT Industry, Consultancy/Finance Job, Electronics Design and a myriad of profiles like Business Development Associates, Content Development Manager etc.
Future Technologies in Electrical Engineering: Smart Grids, Prepaid electricity like mobile recharge (almost a reality now), Switching devices with voices for guidance, Speech recognition, Image recognition, Wireless transmission, Distributed generation (like distribution in transmission), Bulk energy storage capacities, Lightning harness for utilities, Electrical simulation in neural networks.
Are you employing any distinct methodology to ensure students gain an edge needed in the job market in future?
We are adopting the digital methodology to train students. We use techniques like e-books, 3D view, etc for faster results. The institute prefers framing MCQs, worksheets, Real-life Applications, Web Resources, Simulations, mind maps, and other such tools around this lesson.
How do you provide industry interface for students’ skill development?
We provide an internship to give students an opportunity to consolidate and ehance what they’ve learned in class by working in a professional setting under a supervisor, a practitioner in the field. Students need to work three hours a week. A five-credit internship would require that students work 15 hours per week for 10 weeks in a quarter of total internship period.
Do you also have any refresher courses for your faculty to stay updated about latest trends, technology, and upcoming requirements of the education world?
IIE itself does not provide any faculty development programme. It is a governing body that governs the set of rule and regulation to its study centres across the world. We provide them with best quality material, training modules, and other parameters focused to nurture them on basis of communication skills (verbal and written), commercial awareness, attitude towards work, lifelong learning, self-management, team solving, problem solving, initiative, self–motivation, adaptability, stress management.
Faculty’s role needs to change and it needs to be flipped around in a way that the teacher facilitates the overall learning of students rather than distributing notes.
VIT: Revamping Higher Education in India
Seamless efforts for more than three decades made Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT) a brand name in the field of engineering education, says Bharat Agarwal, Managing Trustee, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
Give us an overview of your University and its vision.
Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT) has become a brand in the field of engineering education and is amongst the most sought after institute in Western India.
Having started with three UG programmes in 1983, the Institute now offers nine UG, eight PG and six PhD Programmes.
VIT was the first private institute to obtain academic autonomy in 2008. Since then, the institute has successfully evolved its “learning model” which is acclaimed by all strata of society.
The institute envisions gaining global recognition while staying focused on its contribution in the development of the Country.
Is there any distinct branch of engineering that your institute offers? What is its scope as far as career prospect is concerned?
Since 1983 VIT offers a unique programme in Industrial Engineering. It is a blend of engineering management, ergonomics, optimisation and supply chain related concepts. The programme inculcates a holistic approach in students to solve broad level problems of industry and society in general. There are immense opportunities of higher studies in Industrial Engineering after graduating in it.
Apart from manufacturing, Industrial Engineering principles are applied in service sectors such as health care, transport etc. The diversity in knowledge acquired by industrial engineers enables them to hone the entrepreneurial skills.
Are you employing some distinct teaching methodology to equip your students with an edge required in the market in near future?
The institute practices DT-enabled teaching methodologies to place its students in good companies. Effective use of platforms such as Google Classroom, submission of video assignments, use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) etc allow the students to learn beyond the conventional classrooms and laboratory environment and think on their own, rather than borrowing and sharing ‘within the box’ ideas.
Effective use of course projects enables the student to not only learn technical skills but also social and interpersonal skills. The institute firmly believes in the principle of ‘Learning by doing’ and has provided opportunities for summer internships as well as semester internships.
How do you provide industry interface to make students better skilled and more technically sound?
The institute has started professional development courses in collaboration with Industry experts. Professional experts from industry give training in these courses to develop competence expected in the industry from an engineering graduate.
Besides, college regularly arranges industry visits, guest lectures from industry experts and from successful alumni entrepreneurs. An Industry Advisory board of more than 15 industrialists is formed in each of the nine departments who suggest amendments in the academic content for industry ready engineers.
What steps has your institute taken towards retaining students for higher education in India, to match global education standards?
The students of the institute admitted to Masters and PhD courses in the institutes of National and International repute, such as IITs and IIMs. To that effect, the institute not only has designed its curriculum, but also provides ample co-curricular and extracurricular activities. Sessions by professionals regarding preparation for technical and competitive examinations are also arranged.
AISECT: Improving Higher Education Standards
What is the importance of innovative pedagogy in the field of technical education?
We are in prctice of innovation technical teaching methodology since the inception of our organisation and that is like:
- Our teaching and training methodology focal point is skill development.
- Most convenient mode of communication is used in our teaching methodology to impart global competency from the root level (i.e both in Hindi and English. We are one of the first to provide technical education in Hindi, since 1982).
- We include and promote research oriented study to expand the scope of application and new possibilities.
- We provide hands on practice with the best state of art lab and training facilities by certified trainers and well qualified experienced faculties.
How do you compare the cost of technical education vis-à- vis, say management education?
As technical education’s base is its practical and skilling up orientation which is possible only with the realistic facilities and provisions in all respect in comparison to management studies technical education has a great scope of cost involvement in keeping pace with the fast changing and technological scenario.
India has over 785 Universities, should we expand or consolidate?
We must have some realistic approach for implementing or we say imparting the true education to our society which keeps our heritage, nature, which keeps us upgrading, which keeps us united, keeps us growing, developing and most important keeps happiness of togetherness which is somewhere the true objective of any education system. We believe and think beyond the figures of universities’ numbers although to meet the huge demand it is one of the important aspect.
How can India’s higher education system be made robust?
We have some points in this context:
- First we need to make realistic and standard justified evaluation and grading system before awarding any degree and certificates.
- Need to adopt and align National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) on global standards.
- In place of generalise form, we must implement very specific application oriented system. the system must be updated in sync with current industry demand.
- Need to standardise the professional requirements of trainers and faculties.
- Teacher’s special and professional training programmes in positive inspirational atmosphere is required to nurture best talents in teaching.
- Authorities to approve and authorise institutions should be very implementive and continuously monitored on some specific standards.
In past few years a large number of engineering institutions have closed down. How do you analyse it?
Yes it’s really a noticeable experience and it has many aspects for this situations some of them are as follows:
- Lack of skilled trainers and result oriented institutions.
- Lack of ethical approach while establishing the institutions.
- Lack of fulfilment of prerequisite conditions in admission procedures.
- Gap between the industry demand and educational institutions’s supply eventually creating mismatch leading to great unemployable mass.
Do you think traditional engineering disciplines are being eclipsed by emerging ones?
To meet the demand, inclination towards emerging disciplines has increased but traditional branches of engineering education can’t be ignored. So traditional approach and specialised emerging disciplines should be synchronised with some special vocational inclusions in the curriculum to inculcate it’s both aspect.
