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

MUMBAI: An engineering college in Thane district on the outskirts of Mumbai (name withheld on request) has begun offering three elective courses – each in physics and chemistry – to its first-year undergraduate students as part of the new National Education Policy (NEP)-aligned curriculum mandated by the University of Mumbai (MU), its affiliating body. The ‘elective’ label, however, is deceptive. The only way a student gets to study one of their choices is if the majority of their batchmates also opt for it.

The engineering college would rather have the students pick a course that interests them. But, being a relatively small technical institute (210 intake capacity), it can’t do so without either dishelving its carefully arranged teacher-class distribution or hiring additional faculty – neither of which it can afford. As a result, all students in a batch are taught only one of the three electives.

That’s not what National Education Policy 2020 wants, though. The policy, at its heart, is all about bringing flexibility to higher education curricula. Elective courses – both from within the discipline and outside it – are a key component of the scheme.

But implementing the policy in its true spirit and form remains a pipe dream. While most of the higher education institutes currently find themselves grappling with mainlining various aspects of NEP – minor degrees, multiple entry and exit, skill alignment, value enhancement courses – the struggle is particularly acute for professional education, especially the smaller, standalone engineering colleges.

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Teaching select, specialised courses to a limited cohort, they face a few unique challenges and ramifications in shifting to the new paradigm. This, even as the larger, more recognised tech schools in the country – Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), National Institutes of Technology (NIT), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT), some public and private universities and even autonomous colleges affiliated to state universities – are successfully experimenting with incorporating humanities subjects and minor degrees in BTech programmes.

Paradoxically, some believe that NEP hasn’t made much of a dent in engineering education, because, unlike general education courses, technical programmes have always had some of what NEP 2020 seeks to bring – four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP), project-based learning and internships. They contend that the new policy has only resulted in some ‘cosmetic’ changes of re-arranging course credits.

‘Doing away with core BTech subjects’

One of the major changes is introduction of non-engineering courses aimed at more holistic development of students. But they come at the expense of some of the staples. MU, which adopted NEP in 2024-25, added several new courses in the first year curriculum, which is common across all bachelor of engineering (BE) streams. These include Universal Human Values, Indian Knowledge System (IKS) and Social Science and Community Service – each carrying two credits. In order to balance, the credits of some of the existing technical courses, such as mathematics, mechanics and graphics, were reduced, while their syllabi were also truncated to some extent.

At Karnataka’s Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), one of the largest technical universities and among the first to embrace NEP, the first year BTech courses no longer had a common syllabus, as was the practice until 2021. Earlier, all engineering students had to study the basics of all the branches in the first and second semesters. However, under the curriculum released in 2022-23, students could pick only two of the introductory courses of other specialisations. These mandatory engineering subjects were replaced by electives on ‘emerging technologies’ and courses on Kannada and Indian Constitution.

Many engineering teachers are alarmed over what they see as a dilution of core engineering courses. “In the name of mitigating stress, they are doing away with core subjects. Everything is application oriented; no one is ready to learn the basics. The learning of logic and mathematics isn’t necessarily for their application in the field. They are meant for training the brain. The ultimate application comes at a higher level of education. The graduate level should be about learning basics,” said BR Narayana, a senior teacher at a VTU-affiliated college.

But most of the teachers view non-engineering subjects as little more than a formality. In some cases, it’s by design. For example, MU has demarcated the non-engineering courses for internal assessment.

“College doesn't give any importance to these subjects. They are there simply because policy-makers want them; there’s no spirit. Any teacher is assigned to teach them. Students are simply handed over some notes and asked to prepare for the tests,” said Raza Ahmed Khan, dean, academics and student affairs at Nawab Shah Alam Khan College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, an Osmania University-affiliated autonomous institute.

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NEP 2020: Engineering colleges face hurdles

Introducing NEP has had other repercussions too. For example, the Thane college realised that even though the prescribed lecture hours of the core subjects were cut down in accordance with the new credit distribution, it still needed the duration stipulated in pre-NEP syllabus in order to cover the syllabi. This resulted in an increase in teachers’ and students’ workload. The workday had to be extended by an hour, from 10 am-3:45 pm to 10 am-4:45 pm.

“As it is, the first year admissions get delayed, leaving little time for students to prepare for semester exams. With the new syllabus in place, they get even more exhausted,” said the head of the BE first-year at the institute.

The college’s real test will come in the upcoming year, when it will be expected to add multi and inter-disciplinary courses for a minor degree. The institute has only one department – computer science – as it had shut down other branches due to low demand. Last year, it added 30 seats for the civil engineering course, but got only two students for it. This severely limits the college’s ability to offer a meaningful choice to its students.

To effectively fulfill its many objectives, NEP advocates doing away with the affiliation model of higher education itself and transforming existing institutes into degree-providing autonomous entities. It also provides for clustering of colleges and allowing students to take up courses from institutes other than their own. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has also allowed students to earn credits through online courses.

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The Hyderabad college has opted for the latter. A number of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) will be made available for students to earn minor degrees, so that the institute doesn’t have to appoint additional faculty. “We are trying to align our academic calendar with that of the courses on platforms such as National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL),” said Khan.

However, for now, none of these options appear viable for the Thane college. “Our best bet is to bring teachers from other institutes. But it won’t be economically feasible,” said another faculty member at the institute.

There’s another problem. Some of the existing teachers at the institute are at the risk of being deemed ‘surplus’ if the revised curriculum trims the credit and hence the lecture hours of their subject. The institute may accommodate those teachers by offering some variations of the subjects they teach under the skill-enhancement and value-addition verticals. However, the college principal is quick to acknowledge that it would also mean “sacrificing” the spirit of NEP.

“Our main issue is the staff. Colleges in [Mumbai’s] suburbs don’t get skilled teachers. If we are to implement NEP, AICTE [the All India Council for Technical Education] should allow us to have adjunct faculty members, instead of having to maintain the full-time teaching strength,” said the principal, adding that the institute needs to attain autonomy in order to provide multi-disciplinary education.

Implementing NEP 2020 in engineering

The experts agree that many of NEP’s promised outcomes will continue to be elusive unless the university affiliation system and the faculty norms are changed. “NEP is a very good document, but it’s also very verbose,” said Shankar Mantha, former AICTE chairman.

He adds that while the policy’s idea of institutes being able to exchange programmes and students is doable, it would require ironing out logistical and other challenges. “The concept of the cluster appears very good on the paper, but it’s easier said than done. If you’re a lesser institute, why would someone want to tie-up with you? It may be possible where the institutes belong to the same management. Everything boils down to the money,” he said.

Mantha said that there should be “enabling systems” such as online platforms for colleges to share their course materials for students to seamlessly pick programmes from institutes around the country. “Other logistics, such as fee payments, should be decided at a very minute level,” he said.

The students, on the other hand, have received the incremental curricular changes positively. “We get to learn about so many things,” said a first-year student at the Thane college. They also don't seem particularly perturbed by the lack of choices in subjects. “Our teachers know what's good for us, and advise us which course to choose,” said another student.

FAQs

Q. What is the National Education Policy 2020?

The National Education Policy 2020 is Government of India’s blueprint for the education sector for the next few decades. It sets a target of achieving a 100% gross enrolment ratio in schools by 2030 and in higher education, by 2035. This means, everyone of school or college-going age will be enrolled in programmes. For the higher education target, the NEP 2020 proposes different pathways for achieving it. These include expansion of existing universities, diversification of single-discipline institutions into multidisciplinary ones, encouragement to private education and funding, and increased reliance on online learning.

Q. What does the NEP 2020 say about engineering education?

The NEP 2020 pushes for multidisciplinary training for engineering colleges. It insists that a “holistic and multidisciplinary education” is necessary even in engineering colleges where, so far, options have been limited to technical courses. It recommends that even premier institutions such as the IITs have more of arts and humanities. Apart from this, engineering colleges are also required to offer multiple-entry-and-exit options, flexibility in curriculum and choices in courses, as well as programmes in Indian Knowledge Systems. Other key recommendations, such as a four-year programme and project-based learning, were already part of the engineering curriculum.