Bridge The Gap Between Academia, Industry and Society
What makes a good engineering institute?
A good engineering institute continuously strives to bridge the gap between academia, industry, and society through its rigorous and diverse undergraduate and postgraduate programs. It imparts the highest level of education in technology and science via a creative and dynamic learning environment for its students to ensure they emerge as competent, creative, and imaginative engineers and scientists dedicated to the goodwill of society. A good institute also fosters entrepreneurial spirit and leadership qualities among its students, creating an intellectual reservoir of young minds to meet the growing demands of the nation.
How did you ensure R&D continued to thrive despite the pandemic?
All students (including PHD students) were given VPN access to the library. This enabled them to access study material in the form of journals and books from their homes. Various webinars and online workshops were conducted in order to continue the learning, brainstorming, and group discussions among students and faculty. The faculty of IIT Kanpur resides within the campus and was occasionally permitted to work in laboratories during lockdown. Senior PhD students were brought back to the campus in the later part of 2020, and currently about 2000 PhD and Masters’ students are on campus, working on their research projects.
How are you implementing the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 guidelines into your curriculum?
All undergraduate students are taught fundamental science subjects (maths, physics, chemistry and biology) and courses on humanities and social science disciplines (literature, sociology, psychology, fine arts, etc.) besides the engineering and advanced science subjects. A student has the choice of opting for more than 50 per cent of courses outside of his/her chosen department. Of these, a student can opt for more than 25 per cent of courses that are in fields such as management and humanities. The student is therefore free to develop a wide knowledge base encompassing many disciplines. The institute has also launched a new academic department in the discipline of Cognitive Science. The institute relies on quasi open time exams where the emphasis is on how deep is the student’s understanding of the subject and not on how well they can reproduce the lecture notes in the exam.
How are Indian institutes competing in the education sector on a global scale?
Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have been globally acclaimed for their contribution to technical education. In the Indian context, the higher technical education begins with some of the toughest but targeted competitive exams and goes on to impart a generous blend of theoretical and practical knowledge with focus on STEM fields. In the developed countries of the world on the other hand, we see greater enablers for pursuit of varied career opportunities that go beyond the mainstream options. In order to catch up with the developed nations, the Indian institutes are hiring highly qualified faculty members with expertise in research and education. There is expansion of the research areas of expertise through faculty members being hired in newly emerging areas. Joint degree programs with a few selected foreign universities are promoted to compete internationally.
How has industry relevant skills demand changed?
Currently, a strong knowledge base and real-world skills in Business, Economics, Data Science and Machine Learning has gained importance for engineers. IIT Kanpur is able to cater to this changing scenario by introducing new departments and degree programs (BS and BS-MS in Statistics and Data Science) and providing exposure to a cross-section of students to these areas through open elective courses, Minors, and Second Major, etc. The institute has also launched a Master program in Cyber Security and a diploma in Geodesy. These non-traditional programs offer excellent opportunities for the graduates in the industry.
What are some of the key takeaways from the pandemic?
Due to Covid, education and teaching evolved from the offline to the online mode, making it possible for the students to revisit the recorded lectures at their time of convenience. The online education system is here to stay, and the future of education will be a blended mode of offline and online mode. One of the offshoots of remote teaching is that a discrete assessment model has been replaced by a continuous assessment model, which is also turning out to be a useful tool of learning.
