National Institute of Technology is mulling over a new syllabus after six years to ensure its students fulfil the present employment requirements.

The board of governors of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Patna, would meet on Saturday and Sunday (July 20-21) to discuss the modalities to prepare the new syllabus for the BTech course. The degree syllabus at the NIT-Patna has not been revised since 2007.

“The board of governors and senior teachers at the institution would discuss the modalities to revise the old syllabus and introduce new topics keeping in mind the market requirement. The syllabus would be on a par with those followed in the IITs and the other NITs,” institution director Asok De said. A source said the revised syllabus would focus on industry input, communicative English, personality development and technological innovations.

Apart from the NIT faculty and board members, eminent technocrats and academics, including former director of IIT-Kharagpur K.L. Chopra, would help frame the new syllabus. Also on the coveted list of people who would formulate the syllabus are P.D. Srivastava from IIT-Kharagpur, Ganapati Panda from IIT-Bhubaneswar and Swapan Bhattacharya, the director of NIT-Surathkal.

Members of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) have also been invited to the two-day meeting to provide inputs. They would help know the market needs and formulate the syllabus accordingly.

“As we have invited members from the Ficci, the revised syllabus would have all the ingredients that the industry looks for in an engineering graduate,” said De.

Communicative English and personality development are some of the areas on which the new syllabus would focus. “These would help students during placement interviews,” he said. Economics and management ethics papers would be added to the syllabus. From the second-year, topics on industry requirements would be introduced.

The NIT students feel it is high time that the syllabus was revised. A third-year student said: “The present syllabus does not lay emphasis on communicative English and personality development. Students coming from Hindi schools face problems in expressing their views during placement interviews despite being academically sound.”

NEW & IMPROVED

Focus areas

Industry input

Communicative English
Personality development
Technological innovations

Paper boost

Economics
Management ethics Fundamental science, including physics, chemistry, mathematics, basic electrical and engineering mechanics