Syllabus to skills: Students go beyond to get industry-ready

Hyderabad: The engineering syllabus is likely to go through a major overhaul as the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH), is taking help from all stakeholders, including alumni and industry, to make students industry ready. The varsity will be sending out Google forms to get their feedback and the updated syllabus will be implemented from the academic year 2025-26.
The JNTUH revises its curriculum once in three years and it was last revised in 2022-23 academic year.
"The exercise has already been started. We will be approaching our alumni and industry to understand what skills are lacking in students and make changes to the curriculum accordingly," NV Ramana, director of academic affairs, JNTUH, told TOI.
Ramana, who is also a senior professor of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), said they are approaching various sectors such as service and manufacturing across domains to understand their requirements.
Once inputs are received, the varsity plans to divide them into groups and give them to individuals or subcommittees to study and guide them on what needs to be included in the curriculum.
Apart from keeping the model curriculum released by the AICTE, guidelines issued by UGC and under NEP, the varsity is also planning to tie up with organisations such as the National Skill Development Corporation to give students an option to take skill courses as part of the curriculum.
"The idea is to give flexibility to students to take these courses as an elective during engineering so they can gain practical knowledge. For example, instead of sitting in a classroom, electrical engineering students can do an electrical or 3D-printing course and get those credits added to their degree," Ramana added.
The varsity will be seeking internal inputs in the next board of studies meeting scheduled for Sept 27. Thereafter, inputs will be sought from other stakeholders.
JNTUH is aiming to complete the entire exercise by next Jan-Feb so that approvals can be taken and a new curriculum implemented for next academic year.