The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has picked the best practices of 30 technical education institutes in country, four of which are from Tamil Nadu. The AICTE is sharing these practices with other institutes in the country so they can adopt them to better their performance. The four colleges chosen from Tamil Nadu are the KSR Institute for Engineering and Technology in Tiruchengode, Namakkal, Loyola - ICAM College of Engineering and Technology (LICET), Chennai, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore and RMK Engineering College, Thiruvallur.
The AICTE has released a 44 page report listing out the practices. In the case of KSR Institute of Engineering and Technology, the college has set up the classroom as student centric namely Reformed Teaching Learning (RTL) process, in this method the interaction by students has improved considerably.
Similarly, with activity based learning such as role play, students get more space to interact with teachers and classmates, AICTE report says. LICET organizes summer coaching camp for the marginalized school students. They learn basics in Engineering Drawing, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science and Mathematics besides personality development, leadership skills, communicative English and team building. Equal importance is given to extra-curricular activities too. Experts from industries train them to meet the requirements of the industry.
The morale of the students is boosted by inspirational talks, AICTE report added. It further said, in System Discovery followed at LICET, a system is dismantled to learn its components and functions. This academic year, students are provided with a Laptop, Photocopier, FAX machine, CRO monitor, fan, CPU, wiper motor, Hydraulic Jack and an MCB. Similarly, in System Analysis, students analyze the construction and functioning of the system and come up with new ideas in similar lines, as a team.
The second year students analyzed devices such as Starter motors, Mosquito bats, Centrifugal pumps with peripheral impeller etc. Recently, the college was provided with engines from Ford and 2 Duster cars from Renault for System Analysis.To bridge the gap between industry and institution, and to introduce latest industry trends, courses with a credit of 1 have been introduced at PSG College of Technology and are taught to students by experts from industry and the students are examined also.
If a student completes three 1 credit courses successfully, he is exempted from studying one 3 credit elective course. The best way to bridge the gap between the needs of the industry and the curriculum offered by the University is to collaborate with the industry and get them involved in the teaching-learning process. RMK Engineering College attempt to achieve this by setting up Centers of Excellence (CoE) in a few specialized areas suggested by leading industries, says the AICTE in its report.
