UGC should make traditional undergraduate courses relevant: Nitte Chancellor

MANGALURU

Calling upon University Grants Commission to seriously introspect on the higher education system and save some traditional undergraduate courses from closure, Chancellor of Nitte (Deemed to be Univesity) N. Vinay Hegde said changes should be brought in to make these courses relevant.

Speaking at the 12th annual convocation of the Nitte here on Saturday, Mr. Hegde said there are not many takers for traditional Engineering courses in Mechanical, Electrical and Civil Engineering.

“We (Nitte) were filling 180 seats each for these three branches. But now we are unable to fill even 1/3rd of these seats,” he said and added that in many institutes there are lot of faculties for undergradaute programmes who do not have any work as there were no students. “UGC has to work out a solution,” he said.

The UGC can consider introducing computing and electronics components to courses in Mechanical, Civil and Electrical Engineering courses, which could be a game changer.

“Ensure graduates of the traditional courses do not become irrelevant,” he said and turned to UGC chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar to say, “You will be our last hope to bring changes”. Mr. Hegde said before introducing new courses and programmes, UGC should look at the needs of the faculty.

Earlier, Mr. Kumar said National Education Policy envisages holistic education that harness potential of the youth. Lot of flexibility was being brought to the courses to make the graduates creative and ready them to solve problems faced by the countrymen.

The young graduates should form teams and use their collective wisdom in the path of success. Dedicate yourselves to make the nation prosperous on the lines of other developed countries, Mr. Kumar said.