We offer opportunities for industry learning, online courses and student exchange programmes, says JISCE Principal

In an exclusive interaction with Shiksha.com, Principal of JIS College of Engineering Dr Partha Sarkar talks at length about the importance of industry exposure to students during their curriculum. It brings them the opportunity to be a part of the corporate network, experience real-time work culture, practice what they learned in the classroom sessions and most importantly understand what the corporate world today expects from them. And, JISCE has been eminent in facilitating such exposure to students in the form of two to six weeks of internship programmes.

Dr Sarkar is a graduate in ME in Electronics and Telecommunications and PhD degree holder from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. And, he has over 28 years of rich academic experience.

Read the complete interview below:

Q: What are the three things that your institute is doing that will enable it to differentiate itself from the competition?

A: For JIS College of Engineering, its innovative teaching-learning pedagogy and placements that play an important role in differentiating it from other institutes. While the curriculum remains more or less the same in all the institutes, what matters is the delivery of the content and value addition to it. 

• As an autonomous institute, we have industry-embedded curriculum and students driven culture. We offer opportunities for industry learning, online courses and student exchange abroad programme to facilitate practical exposure to students. If they practice what they learn, they will improvise in themselves. This entire process is integrated through a Learning Management system (LMS) which also acts as an indicator of students’ performance analysis and a guiding force for their continuous development
• In context to placements, we are known for our proven track record of quality placements. In the last placements season, we have successfully placed students with reputed corporate
• Also, through various design, gaming competitions and live projects, we aim to increase students’ involvement in activity-based learning and experiential learning

Q: What are the initiatives undertaken by you that are helping your students become more industry ready?

A: As we focus more on facilitating practical exposure to students, we have set our students free to undergo two weeks or four weeks or six weeks of internship with industries. They learn, practice and improve. This way they also get to experience the corporate culture and get an understanding of what today’s corporate world expects out of them.

Students who undergo six weeks of internship programme can choose to drop one professional elective from their curriculum.

We have Industry Institute Partnership Cell at JISCE that bridges the gap between industry and academia and thus facilitating the students with industrial visits and linkages with industries and thus providing industrial exposures.

Being autonomous we have our own Board of Studies and eminent Industry experts are members of each BoS. They consistently guide us in making our courses Industry ready and up to date.

Q: What are the key attributes that a student should have in order to qualify for JISCE and perform better during the curriculum?

A: We are always in search of students who have the zeal to learn Engineering and make a career out of it. Looking at the current situation, we can say that the world will now move towards digitalisation at an even fast pace. It also means more job opportunities in the areas of engineering. Hence, we are ready to offer more skilled and trained professionals to the industry for a better tomorrow. All our present students are adaptable to changes introduced by Industry 4.0 as it focuses on critical thinking, complex problem-solving skills, communication and collaboration.

We are an autonomous, self-financed college affiliated to MAKAUT and approved by AICTE, NAAC Grade A accredited college with NIRF Ranked institution at Kalyani.

More than getting top grades in the curriculum, it’s important for the student to have a clear understanding of the concepts and apply them for the solution of societal problems. It is only possible if the student has a passion to learn and innovate. We as an institute offer all possible resources to students in the form of e-resources, access to online courses for value addition, scholarly papers, etc. so they learn more and practice more. If so happens, securing good grades in the curriculum is not a difficult task to achieve.

Q: Which programme/s would you say is/are your best? What is it that helps your institution differentiate itself for this programme?

A: It is difficult to say which one programme is the best because all our programmes are at par with the industry standards. And, we keep updating the curriculum basis the suggestions from industry experts.

We aim to accomplish and maintain the international eminence and become a model institution for higher learning through dedicated development of minds, the advancement of knowledge and professional application of skills to meet the global demands.

Q: What are you doing to drive better campus placements for your current students and alumni?

A: Students’ performance can be evaluated on the basis of their performance in the curriculum, the educational institution's performance can be evaluated on the basis of quality placement opportunities it brings to the students. We have a dedicated placements cell that works throughout the year to strengthen corporate relationships. Apart from that we also keep organising regular seminars, webinars and workshops on personality development. We offer:

• Company-specific training
• Prepare students through Mock Interview sessions
• Product development company-specific training
• Online coding and programming practice
• Webinars, seminars and workshop
• Industrial visit
• Periodical assessment in both aptitude & technical
• Specialised Training modules on soft-skill and aptitude are embedded in our curriculum from very 1^st semester