Curriculum revision at the Institute of Chemical
Technology (ICT), Mumbai is obligatory after every four years. For this year, the
major changes that were made were an increase in the number of topics and a
decrease in the number of maximum marks {which is from 100 to 50.} ICT’s
faculty feels that they will need to take extra classes to cover the syllabus
and students feel that they will need to study harder for lesser marks.

Each department enjoys the freedom to revise its
own curriculum. The members of each department committee are professors of ICT,
academic staff from other institutes, industry professionals, ICT alumni and students’
representatives. The process then goes through a three-tier system, which
includes the Academic Council, Dean of Academics and is finally approved by the
Vice-Chancellor.

Students at ICT are not pleased with this years’
revision. Ragini Pillay, a first year B. Pharm student says, “It has become a
stressful situation for us. Since the maximum marks for a subject have decreased,
we feel that we are studying a lot harder for lesser marks.” Another student
says “The addition of new topics actually helps us, as we are being taught
something which is not offered at other engineering colleges.”

Vanadana B. Patravale, Professor of Pharmaceutics
says, “80% of our students go abroad for higher studies and we have to make
sure that their concepts are up to date. For me as a faculty, marks are not
important, knowledge is.” She further adds, “Professors are taking a lead and
going to the Controller of Examination to postpone the exams for the first year
students as the new syllabus is quite vast. We will also be taking lectures in the
Diwali break to cover the syllabus.”

“Regular curriculum revision should take place to
keep up with the pace of developments happening across all fields of science,”
says Prof. Anand V. Pathwardhan from the Chemical Engineering Dept.

Possibly the only thing constant in science is
progress. How it reaches students is the job to be done by the professors at ICT.
“If new concepts are added in the curriculum and we are not familiar with it, then
the institute organises workshops for us,” said Prof. Ajit Kumar of the
Mathematics Dept.