Foreign Universities Coming Over
Our Government willing, we can soon see a number of Universities from various countries setting up their Indian campuses. About 50 universities have expressed their willingness to have campuses here and talks are in progress. This is promising news indeed as it will give education in India a completely new dimension and for all those Indian students who fail to go overseas owing to funding issues, this will enable them to pursue a course of their choice in a reputed foreign university in India itself. Middlesex University is one among the 50 institutions looking to open their India chapter. Head over to The Hindu for an interview of the Vice Chancellor of Middlesex University, Professor Michael Driscoll.
Go The Diploma Way
If you do not have the time or means to pursue a full-fledged degree course or if you are already working and would like to pick up some additional skills in your domain, a diploma might be the perfect choice. Over the years, diploma courses have become quite popular and with the introduction of new domains, new diploma courses are being offered to cater to the demands. A diploma course aims to provide the required skills within a limited time and sometimes work better since it is more focused.
In India, diploma courses are often not placed at the same level as regular degree courses which results in most students shying away from them. However, in terms of job-opportunities, there is a healthy demand for diploma holders. Plenty of diploma holders get job offers immediately after completing their education. Where it takes a considerable amount of time to start a new degree course with adequate faculty and infrastructure, short-term diploma courses are easier to implement. Owing to this, diplomas can boast of offering a wide variety of skills and sometimes outperforming degrees in making students job-ready.
Open universities like IGNOU have several diplomas to offer in distance mode. So if you are looking at honing specific skills or eyeing an emerging domain, check out what diplomas are bringing to the table.
Sylla-Bias
Most of our universities and colleges offering technical education seem to realize the importance of English communication skills beside domain knowledge. All the students are required to take a course on English which is designed to focus extensively on communication skills. So where does this course go wrong?
As far as the syllabus is concerned, the emphasis, understandably, is on developing LSRW skills and not on English literature. Students are required to read passages, attempt comprehension questions, develop an understanding for lexical and contextual meanings, listen for general and specific information, practice JAM (Just A Minute) sessions and so on which all sound quite impressive. However, what remains unimpressive is the performance of many students in the interviews.
Several Universities implement the English course only in the first semester. B.Tech is a six semester course. One wonders how much of the English course a student retains at the end of the course unless he/she has kept in touch regularly. One needs to think about there being more courses on English communication or spreading the English course over a considerable part of the entire duration for it to be more effective and helpful for the students.
We also need to understand that the focus of students coming to study engineering will be on the technical courses since they’ll want to be masters of their domain. The English course ends up being looked at as just an extra or even a burden sometimes. I have seen some of my friends studying engineering and for them it’s all about putting up with this trouble rather than taking a serious interest in it. Implementing courses alone won’t serve the purpose. It is up to the lecturer to make the students realize the importance of English communication skills in professional life and devise ways to keep the students interested. In the posts to come, I’ll attempt to look at the lecturers’ approaches to the English courses in engineering colleges.