To revive a syllabus, just rope in a student
CONTINUED FROM P 13 for the postgraduate students, and will also be introduced at the undergraduate level, eventually.
At Ruia, they started taking feedback on all curriculums three years ago. “We would hold discussions with student representatives, collate the responses and send them to the University Grants Commission (UGC),” says Jessy Pius, coordinator of the college’s internal quality assurance cell and an assistant professor of botany. “This took time, and didn’t always yield results.”
Last year, the college got autonomy. “As per UGC guidelines on autonomy, each department should have existing students on its board of studies,” says Pius. “Sometimes, changes are incorporated as quickly as the next semester.” A demand for research at the undergraduate level in the Science and Arts streams, for instance, has led to the inclusion of a paper on research methods in the second year and a research paper in the final year (from 2018-19).
Jai Hind college has student representatives on the board of studies for the Bachelors in Management Studies (BMS) and Bachelors in Mass Media (BMM) programmes. “The result has been tie-ups with industry partners for modules on data analysis, risk management and stock markets,” says principal Ashok Wadia. “Students also asked for certificate courses on forensic science and Indian heritage, which we introduced.”
Open-ended feedback can help add value to existing systems. “After each semester, we fill in a form on how each subject was taught,” says Tanuj Abrol, a PGPM student at Great Lakes. “One component is on the weekly guest lectures. In a PGPM programme, everyone has some work experience, so this kind of feedback can expose the batch to diverse fields.”
ONE STEP AT A TIME
Students don’t always know what to ask for. “They may be overly influenced by trends such as social media marketing, for instance,” says Biswas of IIT-G. “One way of getting a better response is to ask them to refer to curricula of best international universities and come up with suggestions.” Sometimes, they may also go to an unfeasible extreme. “Last year, postgraduate students from the science stream wanted an entire semester on projects only,” says Pius of Ruia. “We had to explain that some foundation concepts, some theory is essential.”
How feedback can be incorporated also depends on the subjects and stream. “For our PG programme in data analytics and data science, designing a curriculum needs a panel of experts from industry and experienced faculty,” says Venkatesh. “Student feedback, in that case, doesn’t play a major role. We ask students for a feedback at the end of the course, which is then reviewed by professional bodies. Technical courses need to be tightly controlled after all.”