Only those with in-depth and interdisciplinary knowledge have a future

Interview - V. Kamakoti director, IIT Madras

- BY LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

What are the new developments in technical education?

The emphasis is on becoming more and more interdisciplinary. Gone are the days when there was just some programming, basically evaluate and do a job. Today the job prospects are more for people who can conceive a system, conceive the architecture of a larger system, which involves more than one discipline.

Two important initiatives have come from the ministry of education. The first is that they have said that 40 per cent of the courses can be taken online. Many universities have made [the changes]. If you are doing an engineering, say civil engineering for example, 40 per cent have become open electives. So since students can take this 40 per cent online, they can take some robotics courses, which are today important for civil engineering students for 3D printing. They can take operation research courses which are important for building management. They can take certain sensor courses which are important for structural health management for buildings. So these are the new job prospects, because we need civil engineers with additional knowledge.

The second thing is that the UGC has said that you can do two degrees at the same time. One in the morning and another in the evening, so that the time tables do not clash. This is an important announcement. Our data science and electronic system programme BS has 43,000 students, as on date. This is because a lot of people attend a day college and in the evening they come and do this degree. And, as per the National Education Policy, we have four modes—a one-year certificate course, a two-year diploma, a three-year BSc and a four-year BS. There are people who are taking only the evening programme and pursuing other activities in the day. In the future only those with interdisciplinary qualifications will have jobs.

What trends do you expect will stay relevant in the long term?