hi

I presume that you are an  autonomous institution with ability to craft its own program. Following are my views hope it is of some use.

1. Present Scenario:

 1.1 The aspirations of students/parents/ society/ industry has altered considerably over the last decades. Earlier it was intellectual challenge  which was the key driver and motivation to enter into higher technical / science/ arts fields. Now it is ( as per some surveys ) mainly oriented to earning potential and it is a worldwide phenomena with added apathy of students/faculty to real learning.

1.2 The rate of knowledge acquisition by humans has seen an exponential growth,with added fast obsolescence.

1.3 Disruptive technologies and programs  such as MOOC are set to bring in new paradigms of education.

1.4 Students are made to learn subjects which have no bearing on their final career..

1.6 Industry expects immediate productivity from new hires.

2 Possible solutions:

 Based on above some suggested solutions are::

2.1 Select partner industry/organizations for 4 year sandwiched internship (

duration of say one semester /year and with pay).

2.2 First 4 semesters to consist of science/ maths/computer prog/ soft-skills. Award associate degree at this stage.

2.3 Next 4 semesters to contain course drawn up jointly with major companies in each industry on a continuous basis.

2.4 Give high priority to projects and prototypes.Grades to be awarded on 24 hr assignment type open exams.

2.5 Ensure opportunities for continuous education  with skill certificates..

2.6 Use Boot camps and strictly no festival holidays (no more than say 3 /semester).

2.8 Use Rubrics.

2.7 Extra curricular activities ( which must be compulsory) only after final exam.

Hope this is helpful

 Cheers

I fully agree with Narasim Ramesh . Have interaction with Industry, academicians and your alumni(old students). Give due weightage to social science and management courses too.

The curriculum must be incorporated with applied learning. i.e. project based learning,  industrial exposure, participation of industry people in curriculum development, each course (or wherever possible) incorporate practical (not as same as in regular lab) component, etc. will help

Engineering curriculum:

Dear Kayaroganam,

Have a look at:

DeHaan, Robert (2005) The impending revolution in undergraduate science education. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 14(2), pp. 253-269.

McCowan, James and Christopher Knapper (2002) An integrated and comprehensive approach to engineering curricula, part one: Objectives and general approach. International Journal of Engineering Education, 18(6), pp. 633-637.

Thank you very much for your views.

Before talking about curriculum improvement, the attitude of running engineering colleges as result oriented coaching centers should cease in South INDIA. An engineering atmosphere must be created and sustained. The students also may not be in a position to absorb advanced curriculum since they are well accustomed to rote learning. 

Time being, the students can be exposed at least to NPTEL courses. They do offer online courses with certificates.