After a massive exercise that involved industry experts and academicians for over two months, Anna University tabled the 2021 Regulations for second, third and fourth year students at the Academic Council meeting.
The college principals, who attended the meeting, said the university had stacked up courses in a cluster in what they called “verticals”. Each department will have a set of verticals which will include elective courses. Students can choose their professional electives.
For instance, a student of Mechanical Engineering would have courses such as product and process development; modern mobility system; robotics and automation; digital and green manufacturing; processed equipment and piping design, clean and green technology; computation engineering; logistics and supply chain management; additive manufacturing; and AR and VR in manufacturing. Each course will have such clusters.
The university has proposed to introduce skill development courses in each semester. “A student who takes these courses and the skill development programmes can expect to become a technical expert in the subject. If, for instance, in Computer Science and Engineering, a student opts for Internet of Things, then by choosing a set of courses that go along in that cluster, the student has the opportunity to become a specialist in IoT,” said a member.
Minor degree
By taking a set of 18 credits in a particular subject, a student will earn a minor degree in the subject. Similarly, a student who takes 18 extra credits after the third semester and maintains a CGPA of 7.5 throughout the degree programme without a history of arrears, will be awarded Honours degree.
The new regulation would be demanding and students would have to spend more time, point out the teachers. The skill development courses that are added to each semester was a good move as the students will compulsorily have to develop themselves, point out teachers.
The university has proposed to launch foreign languages such as German and Japanese. Also students would have to compulsorily learn English as a language. The laboratory component includes students having to listen to conversations and respond to questions.
