Skill-based education, high-end research facilities my priority, says Anna University VC

Prof R Velraj recently assumed the charge of Vice-Chancellor of Anna University. Shiksha got talking to him where he shares his vision for the varsity. Read the complete interview below.  

Prof R Velraj

Q. What is your vision for Anna University?  

A. My vision is to provide skill-based education or industry-based education to the students who are pursuing engineering in the state of Tamil Nadu. 

Q. Are you are planning to revise engineering syllabus to make students job-ready? If yes, what changes will be reworked on the basis of expanding the curriculum? 

A. I want to do curriculum revamping on a large scale, i.e. from the third and the fourth year, students will be studying more of industry-oriented subjects so that they are ready for direct employment without further training. The option will be given to 80-85 per cent students pursuing engineering in Tamil Nadu. For students, who are highly capable of going for higher studies, syllabus will be even higher than what is available now. Honours degree will also be included in bachelors degree itself so that the students can study something in a particular area within a short period of four years. For this, they will be earning additional 18-20 credits. If a student wants to excel in some other area like management or economics, minor courses will be included. For instance, mechanical engineering students can learn computer as it is required in many application domain. The curriculum will be flexible. It will reworked based on the capability of students and needs of the society.  

Q. What steps are you planning to take to improve the quality of engineering education in next three years? 

A. In any university, if the quality of research is excellent, then automatically it will reflect in teaching. High-end research facilities will be created. We would like to concentrate more on translation of research. Research has to translate into innovation, innovation to product development and product development to technology transfer or incubation. Already, IIT Madras and IIT Bombay are successful in these areas. So, a similar concept will be introduced in Anna University. ‘Make in India’ concept will be very successful in the coming days.  

Q. As you are planning to expand the curriculum, will you be hiring faculty to fulfil this purpose? 

A. We need to recruit lot of faculty members. In our university, 300 faculty members are required. The requirement process will begin soon. For multidisciplinary courses, we need to recruit different capable persons, otherwise it is not possible. We will do it with the approval of the state government. We have decided to invite top officials from core companies. We will be writing to software companies like Wipro to depute some 2-3 engineers for this purpose. Revamping is mostly possible with the help of top officials from industry. During syllabus revamp, we will have 80 per cent participation from industry and only 20 per cent from academicians. 

Q. As the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had recently permitted BTech programmes in 11 regional languages? Will you be opting to teach engineering courses in Indian languages? 

A. Yes, two of our colleges – Erode Sengunthar Engineering College, Tamil Nadu, and Rathinam Technical Campus, Tamil Nadu – have secured permission from the ACITE to teach civil engineering, electrical & electronics engineering, mechanical engineering and computer science engineering in regional languages. It will be started soon. Our faculty will teach courses in Tamil, but the problem is sufficient books are not available as of now. So, efforts would be made to translate good books into Tamil. 

Q. Are you going to pitch for Institutes of Eminence (IoE) status? 

A. Yes, the state government is also keen on that. So, I think it is possible now. I will make efforts in that direction. Somehow, it was not materalised under the previous government. Now, the present government may agree on these terms. The state government is also very particular about the reservation policy alone. If the Central Government also agrees, then we can get this IoE status. 

Also, our aim is to produce good scientists. In January 2020, I visited Cambridge University for a training programme. In one university, they have 100 Nobel laureates. I will try my best to sow the seed for the students to win the Nobel Prize in the next two decades. 

Q. Are you planning to introduce blended system of learning. If yes, what measures will you be taking for its implementation? 

A. Blended system of learning will definitely be introduced. It has lot of benefits. All teachers are not capable of giving all information with practical experience. One expert lecture will be displayed in the classroom. The teacher’s job is to explain what the expert is talking about. Considering the popularity of NPTEL courses across India, we will also be promoting online courses, but I don’t think online education is that effective. Some students are not having all facilities. Also, we are not able to monitor whether students are listening or not.  

Q. Will you be introducing any increase in fee structure in the near future? 

A. I have not looked at that part so far. We have to discuss this with our administrative people and depending on the current situation, a decision will be taken. 

Read more:

• Anna University begins registrations for TANCA 2021
• Prof Velraj appointed Vice Chancellor of Anna University