Bhubaneswar, Jan. 7: Efforts will be made to increase PhD registrations in Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) and Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT). Authorities of these varsities have been directed by the technical education department to take appropriate steps to churn out a good number of doctorates in order to meet the faculty crisis plaguing the technical colleges in the state.

It has been decided that representatives from industries will be involved while preparing the curriculum. This will help in the inclusion of contents, which are required in the current market and prepare the students accordingly, informed the secretary of technical education C. S. Kumar. He was speaking at a review meeting of technology universities.

Kumar also directed the varsities to accelerate the publication of MTech results by February. VSUT and BPUT were directed to immediately install videoconferencing facilities to facilitate regular inter varsity interaction and exchange of lectures.

The universities are at present working on model questions that are to be uploaded on the website of the universities by February for the students. Model answer sets shall also be prepared and uploaded on the website by March. Retired faculties are being engaged to prepare question sets, said a senior official of the BPUT. The varsity is also in the process of digitalisation of lecture notes and has charted out a complete methodology on how to go about the initiative, the deadline for which is February 15.

Teaching faculty from both government and private engineering and professional colleges has been engaged for preparation of lecture notes. The notes will be moderated by the retired faculty of IIT and NIT.

'As per the decision, each moderator will be assigned three to four subjects and an amount of Rs 10,000 shall be paid to each moderator from the BPUT fund,' said a senior official of the varsity.

'Vita l subjects in which general performance of the students is poor, need to be given priority in preparation of lecture notes,' he said.

The detailed project report being prepared by the varsity includes automation of the examination system and scheme of evaluation.