Jadavpur: The launch of a uniform curriculum for the first-year students of all 16 engineering departments of Jadavpur University (JU) has triggered a debate among the teachers on the efficacy of the move.

The university will introduce the common curriculum in the 2018-19 academic year in accordance with a directive from the All India Council of Technical Education, which regulates engineering education across the country.

The introduction of the common curriculum - prepared by the council - is part of JU's attempt to seek recognition of the National Board of Accreditation, without which the university will not be eligible for funds from central agencies.

The concerns about the curriculum were raised at a meeting of the faculty council of engineering and technology on May 3.

Teachers opposed to the move said the uniform curriculum would rob the students of the opportunity to start specialising in their respective fields from the first year.

The other camp's contention is that a thorough grounding in the basic sciences in the first year - which the uniform curriculum is expected to ensure - will help students excel in their disciplines later on in the course.

A professor of chemical engineering said that in the current system, the students of his department were taught the "Outline of chemical engineering" in the first year.

"Most of the students opting for chemical engineering are under the impression that the subject is all about chemistry. In reality, chemical engineering is more aligned to physics and math than chemistry," the professor said.

"We try to dispel the misconception very early in the course by teaching the 'Outline of chemical engineering'. We will no longer be able to do so once the uniform curriculum is implemented," he added.

"With the introduction of the uniform curriculum, we can no longer teach mechanics in the first year. This may affect the students," a professor of mechanical engineering said.

He is opposed to following a curriculum framed by the council of technical education on another ground, too - the loss of the university's freedom to frame its own syllabus.

Till the 2017-18 academic year, the first-year engineering students had to learn basic sciences and some chapters from their respective fields.

Teachers in the other camp pointed out what they called advantages of the new system.

"Apart from the basic sciences, the new first-year curriculum will have chapters on engineering ethics, computer programming and environment management," a professor of power engineering said.

"The idea is to let a student specialise in the discipline of his or her choice from the second year after gaining domain knowledge in the basic sciences."

The common syllabus, dean of engineering Chiranjib Bhattacharya pointed out, will make it easier for the students to switch streams in the second year.

The concerns about the uniform curriculum were conveyed to Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman of the council of technical education, on May 5. "He made it clear that we have to implement the common curriculum if want to apply for the accreditation," vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said.