MINOR DEGREE MAJOR IMPACT

Minor degrees are expected to reduce the number of engineering seats going vacant and equip B.Tech graduates with industry-relevant skills.

- Sheena Sachdeva

In 2020-21, the All India Council for Technical Education, the apex regulatory body for technical education, introduced the concept of "minor degrees" in engineering. Its Approval Process Handbook for that year said that a B.Tech student from one department can pursue a "minor specialisation in emerging areas" offered by a different department and collect a "minor degree" from the second branch. Three years later, that provision may have helped arrest the decline in interest in certain core branches of engineering.

In 2020-21, the AICTE had allowed 39 minor-degree courses. But in 202324, the AICTE permitted all subjects to be taught as minor degree courses in combination with other courses at all levels. "I request to you all that the student should be given a genuine choice with the flexibility of choosing the minor subject. The universities have to create this workable and genuine system offering an array of formats of courses," says AICTE chairman TG Sitharam's foreword to the 2023 handbook.

The AICTE also established committees to frame model curricula for minor degrees in several branches. Shantipal Suresh Ohol of COEP Technological University (originally, College of Engineering Pune) is chairing the committee for the minor degree in robotics and said that institutes are now required to offer a minor degree over and above the specialised B.Tech.

Model curriculum

Originally, the AICTE had allowed minor degrees in 39 subjects, most from emerging technologies. These included artificial intelligence and machine learning, data science, internet of things, virtual and augmented reality, systems engineering, robotics, green technology and sustainable engineering. The 2023 handbook added eight more including VLSI design and technology, business development, marketing and finance, advanced web development, and Indian knowledge systems.