Mita Mukherjee
Heads of several colleges and universities from various states decided to restructure their placement cells to execute the UGC’s policy on making internship training programmes mandatory for all students before graduating.
Principals and senior officials of nearly 50 institutions from various states who recently attended a national level conference in Kolkata stressed the need to draw up plans at the earliest to ensure that the internship facilities are immediately made available to all students which is in line with a recommendation of the centre’s New Education Policy.
Since the existing infrastructure facilities at various institutes are not enough to provide placements to all enrolled students, the participants reached a consensus on public private partnership programme to upgrade the facilities.
As per the centre’s policy, the new four-year programme which has exit points after each year require every students to earn credit points through mandatory internships before completing the course. The UGC recommends completion of internship of two to four credits or 60 to 120 hours of duration during or after completion of fourth semester of the undergraduate degree programme.
In the old three-year degree course pattern, internship was not mandatory for all courses and it was mostly provided to students pursuing professional courses.
The heads, while discussing the matter urged every institution to refurbish their placement departments and start coordinating with recruiters to ensure that every student is involved in the internship programmes.
“The UGC has emphasized inclusion of internship and research in undergraduate courses to provide students opportunities for active participation in experiential learning. The institutions have unanimously agreed to implement the policy as best as possible as this will enable young graduates to increase their employability and also help them to get involved in the workforce without any problem,” Shafquat Irshad, regional manager operations of Presidency University, a private university in Bangalore, told EducationWorld.
The principals’ meet was organized in Kolkata by this University. According to Irshad, at Presidency University, Bangalore, internships have been arranged for over 15,000 students. Sandip Pal, principal of City College of Commerce and Business Administration Kolkata, who was one of the participants in the programme later hold EducationWorld: ” This is a new idea and therefore we need to work a lot details to ensure internships to all students at undergraduate level. For proper implementation of the policy, the institutes must have certain facilities. Most private colleges are better equipped than the state institutes in some ways, whereas, several state colleges have better facilities than the privately run ones. Therefore, there is a need for the institutes to work together to expedite the placement facilities.
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