'Electives after second year to mould career'

The academic community is debating on allowing engineering students to choose electives after the second year instead of at the beginning of the course.

At present, they are segregated at the time of admissions. This would enable students to make an informed decision after being exposed to all the subjects in the first two years of the course.

Besides, it would reduce the need for designing specific courses for market forces, according to MS Ananth, director of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Speaking at the 10th anniversary celebrations of the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H), he said, "Students can mix their verticals for survival in the job market."

The future of sector-based programmes offered at the university fluctuates with market trends but discipline-based programmes will stay. Setting up different schools for each vertical at the university level will lessen the duplication of work by the faculty and the students.

IIT Kanpur board of governors chairman M AnandaKrishnan said there was a need to restore sciences and humanities at the general universities.

The apex institutions should assist in evolving a public policy for higher education, which is fraught with regional and domain knowledge imbalances, he said citing Andhra Pradesh as an example where the engineering colleges have grown by over 35 per cent in the past 40 days.

“No synergy exists between the academia and the research institutions,” he said.