New UG Curriculum

It is indeed unique to IIT Kanpur to review its Undergraduate Curriculum every ten years. Prasada Committee of 1970's, Mani Committee of 1980's, Sundarajan Committee of 1990's, and Mallik Committee of 2000's have successively reviewed the curriculum, initially formulated in the 60's jointly by a Committee consisting of faculty of I.I.T. Kanpur and visiting faculty from the consortium of ten US universities, participating in the Kanpur Indo-American Programme (KIAP). Extensive discussions among members of the committees, subcommittees, senate sub committees, departments, faculty, senate, form the basis of the proposals. Inputs are also taken from surveys that are carried out among alumni, Industrial Orgnization/prospective employers, R & D Organizations along with a critical review of the current curricula administered at leading academic institutions in the west and the east.

Right from its inception, the UG curriculum at I.I.T. Kanpur has had an engineering science base with a significant mix of Humanities and Social Sciences, extra-academic activities like the NCC, NSS, PT and Sports. In addition, facilities like the closed circuit TV, gliding club and photography club created as early as the 60's, provide opportunities to the students for their overall development. It has been a well acclaimed practice to have students' participation in almost all academic and nonacademic policy making activities since mid 60's. This has set healthy trends for the smooth running of the Institute. Thus all members of the IITK community have contributed to ensure that the curricular and extra-curricular programmes focus on the overall development of students. Being a residential campus has also strengthened the student - faculty -staff interaction continously. Academic freedom is nurtured and appreciated by providing a large number of elective courses from several departments for the students to freely choose, irrespective of the specialization. During the curriculum review, all committees strive to achieve reduction in the contact hours and academic load of the students without compromising on the comprehensive requirements of quality and excellence in education. The IITK UG curriculum has become well known for its breadth and depth, its strong roots in engineering science and several firsts in terms of semester wise education, course/units wise promotion, continuous evaluation, counselling to take care of students' problems, slow-paced courses to take care of students of relatively inadequate academic background, summer courses to cater to students with backlogs etc. Computer education has also been a unique feature right from the early 60's. Continuous evaluation of the students through quizzes, mid semester exams., and end semester exam. is a pioneering feature. Instruction by one or two instructors in charge and several tutors drawn from departments across the institute is practised in teaching the core courses, thus making it quite broad. The introduction of interdisciplinary programmes and courses in the curriculum is also an innovative feature of I.I.T. Kanpur education. There has been a gradual metamorphosis of many hardware oriented courses into analysis and software.This has been due to lack of enthusiasm on the part of students as well as faculty for hardware related courses. Progressively deteriorating laboratory facilities, infrastructure and lack of trained technical manpower have also contributed to the gradual withering of courses with a hardware base. Innovative Features of Sucessive Reviews

Provision of open electives, departmental electives, strong common core programme, streamed electives, engineering science and science option courses, majors and minors, UG project to bring in analysis, design, drawing and synthesis are some of the innovative features embedded in the curriculum by successive committees. Probably the emphasis on reduction of academic load and reduction of the B.Tech. programme from 5 years to 4 years have also brought in dilution of the core curriculum by the successive committees. Several faculty feel that such a dilution is not a desirable feature as it weakens the academic content of the curriculum. In view of the continuous evaluation and emphasis on grades, the students appear to be not taking up the extra curricular activities with the expected enthusiasm though the curriculam has been continuously striving to reduce the academic load and leave enough time for their active participation in non-curricular activities and sports. By their background and qualifying in JEE, the students tend to be more career-oriented and do not seem to be using the available time optimally by not participating voluntarily in other corporate activities. Employment Scenario

The Information Technology revolution since the early 90's has also transformed the employment scenario rather abruptly and this has cast its shadow on the students' attitude towards the curriculum in their chosen branches of specialization. The employment potential in manufacturing and core engineering sectors has not only shrunk but has also become less attractive because students seek after IT jobs which offer attractive pay packages, urban locations, and white collared and insulated environments. Irrespective of their aptitudes, most of them would like to pursue IT careers and higher studies abroad and the main objective gradually converges to landing a financially lucrative job. Thus hardcore engineering objectives have become an automatic casuality. The relevance of engineering disciplines in an IT dominated job market confronts the faculty at large. Uncertainties in understanding this socio-technological phenomenon and doubts about the sustenance of the IT industry itself over a longer period of time also compound the indecisiveness in giving a proper direction to the curriculum. How illogical and out of place are we made to feel by our students who at times question our engineering based curriculum, when the jobs that seek them out require tasks like banking automation ?

Gross Features of Current Review (Mallik Committee)

The Committee has submitted its interim report outlining the broad features of the curriculum. Though there does not appear to be any major departure from the existing curriculum, the committee tried to bring in a course "Introduction to Profession" aimed at enthusing the students in their chosen branch of specialization. There is a further effort to reduce the contact hours which probably is not desirable. The committee is trying to introduce more laboratory oriented courses by providing compulsory slots in the professional years with a view to probably recapture the importance of hardware oriented courses. It may not help much as it may be difficult to regroup resources as well as change the mindset of students who are strongly oriented to pursue IT careers. Alternatively, the committee is providing some opportunity to bright students to get retrained and get an additional degree in the branch of their choice by spending an extra year. Another feature is to provide slots for science based courses in the professional years which may provide an opportunity for better appreciation of science and may lead to R&D oriented careers.

Summary

i The situation of having strong engineering based programmes in a large number of disciplines with students overwhelmingly opting (rightly or wrongly) for IT careers cannot be resolved in the near future.

ii The uncertainty surrounding the sustenance of the IT industry also does not provide compelling reasons to proceed decisively towards framing an IT oriented curriculum.

iii The curriculum cannot afford to (and should not) ignore the need for the hardcore engineering background for this serves the long term national needs, which are real and not virtual.

iv There need not be any further reduction in academic load as the students are not utilizing the time thus provided for the purpose it is meant i.e., for extra-curricular activities.

N.S.V. Kameswara Rao

Department of Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Kanpur- 208016

E.mail: nsv@iitk.ac.in

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