Jadavpur: Jadavpur University will frame the syllabus for the common curriculum in such a way that students can specialise in a particular discipline from the first year.

The move will address the concerns of teachers about a common curriculum, which they had said wouldn't allow students to focus on their choice of subject in the first year.

The common curriculum will have engineering science and the university plans to enable students focus on their specialisation through this subject.

Chiranjib Bhattacharjee, engineering and technology dean, said the engineering science syllabus would be bi-modular.

"In the bi-modular pattern we will have an additional volume on six chapters that will cover the 14 specialisations the university offers," he said. "Everyone has to study a basic minimum portion of the syllabus."

For example, mechanical engineering and chemical engineering students will have to study an additional volume of thermodynamics.

Apart from the thermodynamics and computer programming and numerical, the other chapters will be on engineering mechanics, introduction to electronics, electrical technology and engineering drawing, Arup Guha Niyogi, convener of the common curriculum committee, said.

"The six chapters have been designed to cater to the requirement of all the 14 departments. All the 1,273 students who would take admission to the institute this year will have to study the six chapters under engineering science," Niyogi said.

"A mechanical engineering student will study an additional volume of engineering mechanics as it is more aligned to his discipline."

What idea went behind choosing the six? The chapters have been chosen keeping in mind that one has to have a command over these basic areas irrespective of the discipline, a professor who is part of the board of studies on engineering said. "It is as good as developing a command over basic science (physics, chemistry and mathematics) in the absence of which one is bound to falter later on."

The chapters have been prepared in accordance with the AICTE directives.

The 14 engineering disciplines (excluding pharmacy and architecture) will have three components - basic science, humanities and social science and engineering science.

First-year students will undergo a three-week induction course to understand the new curriculum, dean Bhattacharjee said.