NIT plans add-on courses for BTech students

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 4

Ahead of the new academic session, Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT) is mulling plans to shift from routine single degree system to introduction of concept of a major degree course and a minor degree course for the B Tech students.

Prof Lalit K Awasthi, Director, NIT, discussed the plan with the newly-recruited faculty during a two-day orientation workshop that got underway today. The workshop is being held in Jalandhar jointly for Government Women Engineering College, Ajmer, too.

“In this concept, students who are fast learners, will be allowed to opt for a fast pace of completion of their degree requirements and then they can opt for 18 to 24 (6 to 8 subjects) of any other steam of study of their choice as minor specialisation. For example a student, who is completing his degree in Mechanical Engineering can enroll himself in Computer Science and Engineering by completing 18 to 24 credits,” he said.

He added with the induction of 52 more faculty members, the NIT Jalandhar will definitely be in a position to improve its ranking on national and international arena.

The workshop was inaugurated by Dr R Natarajan, former Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education and former Director IIT Chennai, in the presence of Dr Mahesh Chander Govil, Director NIT Sikkim. The workshop is aimed at training and motivating the newly-recruited faculty members with an aim to improve teaching pedagogy, introduction to outcome based education and familiarisation of faculty to the accreditation process.

Dr Natarajan highlighted the importance of outcome based education and defined the role of National Board of Accreditation (NBA) in ensuring the quality education provided by the technical institutions.