Visvesvaraya Technological University invites opinion of faculty to frame syllabi

BENGALURU: Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), the umbrella university for engineering colleges, has invited suggestions from faculty of all affiliated colleges for building its syllabi for semesters 3-8.
Usually, the board of studies formed by a university’s syndicate works on the syllabi for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. With the state rolling out the National Education Policy (NEP), it required VTU to rework its syllabi.
The university had called for meetings with faculty when the first and second-semester syllabi were being framed. Now, it has begun the task of readying the syllabi for other semesters.
“The curriculum needs to meet industry demands. It should be agile enough to adapt to the growing needs of an emerging industry. Each board of studies has started working out a series of solutions to bridge the skill gap. The input of experienced and expert teachers of affiliated colleges is also helpful in this regard,” the university registrar stated in a circular to affiliated colleges.
The university has requested teachers to submit suggestions for the draft syllabi for the subjects of their expertise before May 15. The submissions will be placed before the respective board of studies for consideration.
“We’re trying to democratise the process. There could be several young or experienced faculty members who would want to contribute to the framing of syllabus. Every time, only the handful of members from the board of studies frame the syllabus,” said S Vidyashankar, vice-chancellor. “Since the number of faculty members is huge, we don’t want to hold meetings. But they can send in their suggestions via mail.”
“Last time, when we were preparing the syllabi for first and second semesters, we held meetings where faculty from all colleges could participate. Everyone gave their thoughts on it. It is best when there are suggestions from different experts,” said Manjunath M, who was part of the board of studies in civil engineering and faculty member at East Point College of Engineering.
Work of sub-committees
For colleges under other state universities, different sub-committees were formed to create syllabi by the Karnataka State Higher Education Council. The sub-committees formed a syllabus, which could be tweaked or accepted as it is by the board of studies of the respective state universities. “Even though we had invited faculty from various colleges to participate, some of the subjects received lukewarm response from the colleges,” said a sub-committee member.