Our aim is to teach students to understand society and their surrounding environment, says HOD-Physics department

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Dr K Kesavan Head, Department of Physics, Periyar Maniammai Institute of Science and Technology, Vallam, Thanjavur talks about the curriculum, lab infrastructure, and various facilities and benefits of BSc Physics Programme. The institute is having well planned suitable curriculum to meet up the industry requirements and employment opportunities. The curriculum is designed in such a way as to crack the competitive examination.

Dr Kesavan is a PhD and MPhil degree holder in Physics and has sound academic experience.

Read the complete interview below

Q: What are the salient features of the teaching methodology adopted by your college? How does this differ from others?

A: A quality Teaching methodology of PMIST starts from day one of the programme itself in the form of a Course plan. There is an academic calendar for every semester and each programme is published at the beginning of the semester. By this, the students get the exact schedule regarding their Continuous Assessment I & II, course working days and submissions & presentations for internal assessment for the respective course. The manner of assessment is different for various subjects and is made by keeping in mind the needs and demands of the subject concerned. Extra classes are conducted depending upon the level of the learner (slow & fast). Apart from the regular subject, each semester students are encouraged to choose a paper from other departments of their own interest in the name ‘Open Elective Course’. We are implementing ‘core subject project’ as part of the curriculum in the final year from the UG level itself. Which helps to improve scientific, research, and problem-solving skills.

Our planned curriculum, including various extra-curricular and co-curricular activities, makes this unique from the other Universities. Moreover, the curriculum and the activities are approved by a panel of academicians from various universities and experts from different industries.

Q: How are you preparing your students to be Industry ready?

A:  To make students get exposed to industrial scenarios and requirements, we have implemented mandatory summer internships in the second year. These internships are documented and monitored regularly by faculties. In addition to that, every semester, students are encouraged to visit various industries and research labs.  Skill development and value-added courses are availed by various departments to meet the industrial needs and to develop their communication, analytical and reasoning skills. Students are given rigorous training in the form of workshops, seminars, conferences and guest lectures with resource persons coming from top companies, universities and non-government organisations.

Q: What are the qualities you are looking for in student applicants? What qualities do they need to do well in your course?

A: What we expect from the student is their soulful interest and determination to learn physics. Our aim is to teach students to understand society and their surrounding environment. We believe in doing what cannot be done by others.

Physics is nothing but study about what is around us. So they should be willing to take up challenges, tasks and doing something innovative. Students work on the topics in real-world problems/ issues/ needs and apply in their life that the concepts they learned in the curriculum.

Q: How do you ensure that your course curriculum is up to date and meets industry requirements?

A: The course curriculum is as per the norms mentioned by the University grand Commission. It is also approved by the Board of Studies (comprised of a panel of external experts from industry and academia of other universities) at the departmental level followed by the approval by the Academic Council. These changes are done in order to meet up the industry requirements so that they are always kept updated.

Moreover, we are bringing speakers from industry experts to interact with our students and faculty.  We are facilitating industrial visits to the students and they have to submit their report on what they learned. This helps our faculty to understand the industry expectations and fine-tune the syllabus, pedagogy and assignments/projects.

Q: Is your college receptive to innovation, technology, science & entrepreneurship? How? Could you cite some examples of these?

A: Our University indeed is receptive to innovation, technology, science and entrepreneurship. In our Periyar TBI, Student’s innovative ideas are incubated by the university, where students can develop the prototype and fine-tune the business model and start the business. Our interested students and entrepreneur can collaborate for coming with new and innovative products that are viable and have market potential.