Affiliated colleges offering ‘job-oriented’ courses under the self-financing mode have to step up facilities and resolve shortcomings to enable students gain employment and achieve skill development, Sabu Thomas, Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU), has said.
“The managements offering the B. Voc programmes need to gear up and ensure proper infrastructural facilities, including excellent laboratories. Otherwise, the desired goal of helping students gain employment and enhancement of their skill level would not materialise,” he said in response to the decline in demand for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the self-financing stream. The Hindu had reported that about 50% of the self-financing seats for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in affiliated colleges of the university had remained vacant in the academic year 2021-22.
“Unless the managements rope in industry experts and provide internship opportunities to students, B. Voc courses will continue to witness a slump in demand. The lab and other infra facilities should be in tune with the course objectives, which seem to be lacking as per my personal assessment,” he said.
Maintaining that the enthusiasm among the managements towards the courses was often lost after the initial funding by the University Grants Commission for B. Voc courses, the Vice Chancellor pointed out that industry collaboration was a prerequisite for the programmes.
“Experts representing the industry have to be invited to campuses for lectures and to advise students on shaping up their capabilities in tune with the requirements of the industry. Teachers involved in these courses need more industry exposure. They also need to participate in training programmes that will help in improving their teaching skills,” he said.
