AICTE set to ease norms to boost admissions in core engg courses

New Delhi : To boost admissions in core engineering courses, including civil, mechanical and electronics, the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) will now allow students pursuing these programmes flexibility to also pursue a minor degree in any emerging area, council chairperson TG Sitharam said.

“India cannot become the viswa guru, or a global leader in technology without core engineering courses. Therefore, we have come up with some schemes this time,” he said on Friday during a virtual interaction with stakeholders before finalizing the approval process for the 2023-24 academic session.

“We want to provide greater flexibility to students by throwing open all minor courses for all engineering disciplines, so that a civil engineering student can minor in information and technology and become job ready,” Sitharam said. “Otherwise, what is happening today, even including in IITs, all these people are trying in the industry for the emerging areas. Instead of that, we thought they can earn 18 to 20 credits by pursuing a minor degree in emerging areas while pursuing their programme.”

The minor degree concept was introduced by the regulator of technical education in 2020-21 to make students ready to work in industry. However, not all minor courses are open for core engineering students.

The new rules will be reflected in the AICTE’s approval process handbook that is likely to be released by the end of this month.

There have been concerns that popularity of core engineering courses have been decreasing in the past few years. The AICTE in the past had asked all affiliated engineering colleges to promote these courses by interacting with industry experts, introducing compulsory internships, and providing hands-on experience.

The council will also have hold discussions with industry experts regarding the changes, the AICTE chairperson said.

“Every year, the percentage of admissions in core engineering branches were going down. But last year, the graph moved upward. We will soon put the data in the public domain,” AICTE member secretary Rajive Kumar said. “This year, we are going to give more emphasis on minor degrees while giving approvals. We request colleges to start minors to give an opportunity to students to pursue one or two minors in their fields of interest and become more employable.”

The council will also allow teachers of core engineering courses to take a10-credit online course on emerging areas for the upcoming academic session and get certified. “This will allow these teachers to teach these minor courses in emerging areas within their department rather than depending on new faculty,” Sitharam said.