Anna University to allow Tamil Nadu students ace engineering with fewer courses

CHENNAI: To help final-year engineering students do longer internships in companies to make them job-ready, Anna University is mulling to giving them more academic freedom. As per the proposal, engineering students can finish their final or eighth semester courses in seventh semester itself and they can devote a full semester to internship or project work.
The university is also planning to allow slow learners to choose fewer courses and complete their degrees without arrears.
“The current academic system is rigid and we need to give flexibility to students in choosing courses. We also plan to give more weightage to projects and hands-on experience for engineering students in the final semester,” said M K Surappa, vice-chancellor, Anna University. The students, however, must finish all the courses mandated in the regulation. “If a student is capable, he or she would get an entire semester to do project work or internship,” he said.
Presently, students have two elective courses (6 credits) and a project (8 credits) in the final semester. “For slow learners, the university will give them the opportunity to choose fewer courses,” professor Surappa said adding that the move would help students from getting bogged down by arrears.
‘Move will benefit students a lot, help them get better pay’
They will also be allowed to do projects and internships outside the country. “The university will give slow learners the opportunity to choose fewer courses,” professor Surappa said, adding that the move would help students from getting bogged down by arrears. He further said such move would make bright engineering students more employable and entrepreneurial.
Engineering colleges said top companies like Amazon, Infosys, and Cognizant are offering six months to eight-month long internships to engineering students with a stipend before hiring them.
“Due to the academic commitments in the final semester, engineering colleges are not able to allow the students to have full-internship for the six-month period in the eighth semester. Colleges have requested the university to allow students with higher Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) to finish the courses before the final semester,” said R M Kishore, vice-chairman, RMK Engineering College.
“The move would be very helpful to the engineering students and companies also would offer higher pay package to students who got selected after an internship,” he said.
“In the current system, students need to come to classes in the final semester for professional elective courses. If they amend the regulations, brighter students would be benefited,” B Chidambararajan, principal, Valliammai Engineering College, said.