How much is too much when it comes to preparing students for the workplace? If internship is the route for students pursuing professional courses, it is no different for students of liberal arts courses.
Colleges have opened innovation hubs and centres. Some have clubs where students get hands-on experience. At Justice Basheer Ahmed College for Women, an environment club ensures that all students enrolled in it are passionate about vermiculture and composting. The club functions under the Zoology Department. Zoology faculty member Parveen has an enthusiastic band of students visiting the vermicompost unit every year. They learn not only the benefits of vermicompost but also the science behind it. Well-known environmentalist Sultan Ahmed Ismail has been advocating a green environment by recycling and creating an ardent youth group.
At Justice Basheer Ahmed College, the department trains school students, besides its own. “We have organised workshops for school students too,” Ms. Parveen said. The college students purchase the compost for a price far lower than the cost on the market. This is to keep the students engaged in college and teach them the value of their work.
Entrepreneurship as a career
Dharmamurthi Rao Bahadur Calavala Cunnan Chetty’s Hindu College in Pattabhiram has tied up with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission to teach students soap-making and baking. Its entrepreneurship development and innovation cell offer students a range of experience — from digital marketing to understanding the importance of intellectual property rights.
The college organised a field visit to the Indian Bank Self-Employment Training Institute and to the incubation centres to encourage students to develop innovative business ideas, principal G. Kalvikkarasi said. The college also holds periodic expositions to enable students from all streams to choose entrepreneurship as a career.
Last week, the Women’s Christian College at Nungambakkam had a meeting on filing of patents for discoveries and inventions. The Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology (TNSCST) conducted a workshop on intellectual property rights. College principal Lilian Jasper said it was an eye-opener in many ways. Though the college had filed for patents, there were other areas that the faculty members and students should be aware of, she said.
“We are doing a lot of things. But we don’t get them patented. The member-secretary of the TNSCST was here [to sensitise the faculty members to intellectual property rights],” she said.
A common perception in India is that knowledge is everybody’s property, she said, adding, “Everybody uses everybody else’s ideas.” The Science Council meeting gave the faculty members a new understanding of the need to patent findings, she said. “We must look out for things and identify what we can patent. We have quite a few patents. There are innovative ideas that people have come across and patented.”
The principal recalled that the faculty members who identified three new organisms had patented them as well. “It is an interesting beginning. How to do it properly and go about the process is still a mystery for some,” she said. The TNSCST helped the college conduct a five-day faculty development programme at the end of January.
