Panel bats for a more flexible, practice-oriented engineering curriculum, emphasis on teacher training to improve graduate employability

A flexible curriculum giving students a choice of courses, early introduction of problem-solving teaching methods without sacrificing attention to core courses, mandatory internships and projects and teacher training were some of the suggestions put forward by a panel of experts while discussing the topic ‘Future of Engineering Curriculum – Enhancing Graduate Employability’ here on Tuesday.

Curriculum reforms should focus on stronger industry-institution linkages, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education, and more outcome-based learning to improve graduate employability, the panelists added. The discussion was part of the Uyarkalvi Uraiyadalgal – Dialogues on Higher Education organized by the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TNSCHE).

CN Krishnan, Eminence Professor, Anna University pointed out the problems on the “delivery side” and stressed that teachers in technical institutions will have to be part of the solution and should therefore be trained to do so.

However, according to him, employability also has other dimensions, such as personality, and teachers cannot be expected to perform in this area as well. Greater investment in laboratories and other infrastructure was needed and industry should bid for it, he added.

Responding to him, MP Vijayakumar, Vice-Chairman of TNSCHE, said that there is no dearth of funds for higher education in Tamil Nadu and that the government has allocated ₹30 crore this year to improve laboratories across the state.

Edamana Prasad, Director, Teaching Learning Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, wanted problem-solving skills to be inculcated in the first semester itself while completely overhauling the conventional way of classroom teaching to help students acquire soft skills.

Sriram Parthasarathy, chairman, Chennai Institute of Technology, said students can find more time for projects if they are allowed to take about 40% of their courses online as permitted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Sajan P. Philip, associate professor, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, said students need to know their basics well and are expected to have a portfolio of projects that were not covered in the syllabus. These two approaches are quite different and curricular reforms should try to balance the two.

Azhagu MP Pandia Raja, founder of Scrapify Ecotech, said internships help students acquire industry-related skills, but a monitoring mechanism needs to be set up.

The session was moderated by P. Keerthi, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Anna University.

Published – 08 Jul 2026 0:37 IST