DTU VC: Planning B.Tech-LLB degree programme, 20% supernumerary seats for women

NEW DELHI: Prateek Sharma, vice-chancellor of Delhi Technological University (DTU), one of the oldest engineering institutes in Delhi, is “working aggressively” to recruit teachers to the 55% posts still vacant. Sharma spoke to Careers360 about why it’s been a challenge to increase the sanctioned faculty strength, last decided when the student roll-strength was under 60% of its present size. He also spoke about funding, introducing supernumerary seats for women, new courses and centres, research and the “ambitious” project of creating a repository of societal problems and their solutions.

State universities are facing a constant funding problem. How has it been for DTU?

If you see the overall funding that the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) receive, 70-90% comes in the form of grant-in-aid. In our case, it is between 15-20% of the total budget. Despite that we are doing quite well. If 15-20% are grants, the remaining 75-80% would be fees and about 5% is from our consulting work. Civil engineering and two other departments do the consulting work. This is one of the major challenges.

Now with the National Education Policy (NEP 2020), has funding become a bigger problem?

NEP implementation does not need much funds. NEP implementation is making available to students different choices of interdisciplinary subjects, skill based courses, value-added courses and others. It is about giving them options along with the facility of multiple entry, exit and lateral entry. The lateral entry option does not require much resources. It is basically partnering with institutions on credit sharing.

Having said that, our student body is much larger than any IIT’s. But if we see the corresponding faculty strength, that is the challenge. We would need funds for maintaining the student-faculty ratio. We currently have 282 faculty and have recently recruited 30-odd. The total sanctioned positions are 700. This is an area where we are working aggressively.

But these 700 posts were sanctioned when the student strength was about 9,000. We have 16,000 students now. We have written to the government to sanction more posts.

Also read ‘Our main issue is staff’: Why engineering colleges struggle with NEP 2020

The thrust of NEP has been about transforming institutions into multidisciplinary ones. DTU already has a humanities, social science and management departments. Do engineering students want to take up the courses from other departments?

The general trend is towards computer science. Even in departments like civil, electrical, they want to move towards software.

There is a need for students to acquire social sciences skills. The very spirit of NEP is to create individuals with rounded personalities, who have a 360-degree view of the world. That doesn't come up by studying core branches of engineering or computer science. It is a stated objective that hardcore engineering students should also learn a substantial amount of psychology or sociology, so that the technology can be made socially-relevant.

There’s a little bit of economics and engineering accountancy in the BTech curriculum but subjects which involve sociology, political science, constitutional values so that you are aware of your surroundings and contextualise your engineering skills for the benefit of society, that we are trying to integrate.

Last year, we introduced an integrated economics course where the humanities department will provide opportunities to other students to register and take part. Apart from economics, we have introduced more programmes in physics, chemistry, mathematics and biotechnology with multiple entry, exit options. We also launched MTech by research recently.

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NEP also led to centralisation of entrance tests. Earlier, DTU used to conduct its own test. Has the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) changed the student body?

In engineering, earlier if we had 100 seats, now we have 200. The students coming into seats 101-200 based on marks will not be the same as those in the top 100. This applies to all institutions – as you expand the number of seats, compromise happens in terms of students.

As for CUET, 15% of students are from across the country and there is a lot of competition. In terms of calibre they are very good. In certain cases, they are better [than those in state quota] as they are here after being pooled from the entire country.

How is Delhi Technological University in terms of gender ratio?

Overall we are not doing well. But if we go department wise, in sciences we are doing well, it is 50:50. But in the core branches of engineering, the ratio is poor. We have addressed this by creating 20% supernumerary seats from August. We have to decide if we implement it at once or in a staggered manner.

How important is internationalisation to DTU? What is the kind of foreign students coming to the university at present and are working on expansion?

There are two aspects to internationalisation – having foreign students on campus and foreign research collaborations with scope for student and faculty exchanges and joint grants.

We have just signed an MoU with University of Houston, Wright State University and Bradley. For any exchange programme, the students spend three years here and one at the host institute. We have identified certain programmes. In another “4+1” format, a UG degree is done here and a masters there. We are looking right from the UG to PhD level. Our alumni have been helping us and reaching out to people who can support the expenses of students. We are seriously working on drawing foreign students to the campus.

We have 481 international students – out of a total 16,000 – and we really want to increase it. The students here are mostly from SAARC countries and African nations. The objective is to increase the ranking so that we are able to attract students from other countries as well.

Also read AICTE plans AI integration in all engineering courses: Chairman TG Sitharam

On ranking, where does DTU lose out?

We have done our own forensic analysis. Right now we are at 27. Our objective is to reach the top 10 and it is very easy. There are five verticals in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) – in three, we are almost on par with the top five. We are lacking only in perception and research. Research needs funding. Our perception score is 40 out of 100. In R&D, our score is 40; IIT Madras, at 92. If we add 30 to each, we will be at number 6.

For QS ranking we are working on the parameters. We have formed a committee to look into it.

How have placements been for the past few years?

DTU was part of the general trend, seeing a little bit of decline. Generally, DTU placements are very good. We are doing as good as the IITs. We offer all branches of engineering. There are certain institutions which only offer computer science, information technology and electronics, which are the most-sought after. Obviously their median and maximum salary will be high.

Our range is quite wide, from computer science to biotechnology to environmental engineering, where the salary is at the lower end. It is important to look at each department’s placement. If we see the top percentile branches, we are at par with or even better than some IITs.

For a long time, DTU has focused on innovation and entrepreneurship. What journey have students undertaken toward it?

DTU is doing quite well. We now have around 57 start-ups. We also have a separate Section 8 company called “Innovation and Incubation Foundation”, which facilitates incubation of ideas and startups. We are ranked at number 6 or 7, in terms of the total unicorns that have emerged from an institution. The combined value of DTU IIF stands at over Rs 700 crore, with Rs. 100 crore of private investment. The combined turnover is over Rs 300 crore and 1,000-plus jobs have been created.

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In what ways will DTU expand?

We have the Narela campus where we have been allocated 47 acres of land. We want a research park there. In future, we would like to have more centres of excellence, like the Digital Diagnostics and Healthcare Management one, where we use technology for disease detection.

We have also created a School of Integrated Learning and Research which will have a department for research and programmes in interdisciplinary areas. Our environmental science department will be part of this.

We have obtained in-principal approval for a department of geospatial science and technology, which is based on the government’s space policy. We have also created a separate vertical of digital education – the idea is to reach out to masses and working professionals. Our new Centre for Executive Education will offer short-term certificate courses lasting seven days to one year.

We are also contemplating an integrated BTech-LLB degree.

It has been over a year since you took over as the VC. So far, what has been your greatest learning and achievement?

I was a student here when it was Delhi College of Engineering. There is an emotional bond with the institute. Predominantly, the institution was a college providing undergraduate courses. It was not conceived like IITs which were focussed on providing doctoral, masters programmes and research. When DCE was a college, masters and PhD programmes existed but were registered with Delhi University. My observation is that there is a need to create centres of excellence to undertake primary research and create knowledge in gap or thrust areas that are the need of society. In that context, a few centres of excellence were created, such as the Nodal Centre for Energy Transition. The Centre of Excellence in Macro Electronics and Semi-conductors already existed and the seed funding came from an alumnus, Vinod Dham.

I feel a technical institution should always address societal problems by providing technological solutions. We created the Centre for Community Development and Research (CCDR) to pick up societal problems and create a repository of solutions. It can be rural or urban problems, industrial problems, or defence problems. The repository is created and depending on the enormity of the problems, the project is distributed to the undergraduate, postgraduate or Phd students to work on as dissertations. The findings will be shared with the respective stakeholders. We have got funds from the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and from the ministry of defence.This is something very ambitious we have been doing.

DTU is one of the oldest engineering college in Delhi. (Image: DTU official Facebook)

FAQs

Q1. Is DTU better than IIT?

IITs generally have greater global recognition and are considered more prestigious than the Delhi Technological University. In the last National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), IITs dominated the top eight places in engineering ranking, while DTU secured the 27th spot. However, the latter is considered one of the best technical institutes, especially in the Delhi-NCR region.

Q2. Can I get DTU with 80 percentile?

As per past trends, a 80-90 percentile score bracket typically translates into a JEE Mains rank range of 79298 - 102421. At those ranks, DTU Delhi admission for out-of-state students is not at all likely. It is difficult even for home-state candidates (domiciled in NCT of Delhi); last year, the lowest DTU cut-off was 75960, for BTech Environmental Engineering. For more popular programmes – BTech Computer Science Engineering and allied branches – DTU cutoffs are much higher.

Q3. Is DTU a Tier 1 college?

With an overall NIRF ranking of 66, an engineering ranking of 27 and a National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) Grade A, DTU is considered to be a Tier 1 college in India along with other premier institutes of the country such as IITs and NITs.

Q4. What are DTU fees?

All four-year BTech programmes at DTU cost Rs 9.79 lakh.