86.New courses initiated as Dean



New  courses  play an important role in the growth of  higher  educational  institutions. When new  courses are  started, more opportunities for promotion of teaching and non-teaching staff  will automatically be generated. Additional buildings   for lecture classes and laboratories and  additional equipment will be   available. With the introduction of new courses, sometimes  new  challenges  may have  to be taken up too. Of course, there  can be   difference  of opinion among the  faculty  on the  choice  of the  area  of specialization.

As part  of academic administration,  two academic bodies  were  formed to prepare  the  material for discussion in the senate.  Board for Undergraduate Studies (BUGS) for  B.Tech  courses and Board  for  Postgraduate  Studies (BPGS) for the  M.Tech, MCA and PhD programmes. Dean (UG)  was the Chairman of BUGS and Dean(PG& SR) Chairman of BPGS. The proposal for the post graduate course prepared by the  department is discussed  in detail in the  BPGS  before  presentation in the senate. Curriculum and  syllabi discussed and approved  here  in several sittings of the BPGS. After these  preliminary work only, the proposal is   presented  in the  Senate  for final approval and acceptance.

As  mentioned  briefly, emphasis was  on starting new M.Tech programmes  in engineering departments. Engineering departments  prepared   proposal based on the expertise available  in their respective departments. These  were  to include the recent developments  in the different branches. Very little difference of opinion was apparent  in these.  But,  coming to the proposed   Masters  programmes in the  Science  departments, clearly there  were two  strong opinions arose. One was to start  post graduate programmes similar to those available  in the Kerala, Calicut and M.G.Universities  in the state  and another to start special course unique  to  other   institutions  of higher  learning like I.I.T with emphasis  on emerging areas  of applied sciences. The  Director and myself were  of the opinion that   the course offered  by N.I.T should  have a stamp of its  own and should not be a ‘run of the mill’ courses. We were  of the  opinion that we should start M.Sc(Tech)  courses  of three  years  duration instead of the usual two-year  M.Sc  courses  available  in other universities. However, members  of faculty  in the departments of Physics and Chemistry  were  for starting  conventional courses, mainly for reasons for ease of teaching. M.Sc(Tech)  courses could  be like  the integrated M.SC(Tech) courses available in I.I.Ts. Mathematics  department  was   ready as they had been teaching  engineering mathematics for the B.Tech and M.Tech courses already for several years. However, teachers  in the science departments  were teaching mostly  in  the  first and second years  of the B.Tech courses and were sceptical about these  new format courses. After  prolonged  discussions, we decided  to start  three-year  M.Sc(Tech) course in Materials Science  in Physics   department and Polymer Science  in Chemistry  department. However, it is learnt that   recently  these courses  have  been converted  to the conventional  type courses available in  other universities in the state.

Anyway,  during  the  three years I was  Dean (PG&SR), with advice  from the  two  Directors and cooperation  of the  colleagues in the  different  departments, we  could start one  more  M.Tech  course  in all  the  engineering departments and three M.Sc(Tech)  programmes  in the Mathematics, Physics  and Chemistry. This  is something  I look  back with  gratification. Further,  the  Ordnances and Regulations for  M.Tech and PhD  courses were also  thoroughly revised so that  the  quality  of the  courses  could  be enhanced by stipulating  conditions for satisfactory  progress and  ultimate  submission  of the PhD theses.

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