HYDERABAD: With twin objectives of increasing enrolment and reducing academic load, the Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE) is planning to introduce several new undergraduate courses in 2026-27 academic year.
According to officials, the move is aimed at enhancing the employability of the students, and among the key new streams likely to be introduced in the upcoming academic year are maritime, aviation and defence.
Curriculum update, the TGHCE officials said, will be a starting point for educational reforms that will help in addressing low student attendance.
Speaking to TNIE, TGCHE chairman Prof V Balakista Reddy said, “For the last six months,the council has been working on bringing changes in the degree courses. As I keep saying, today’s mantra is that be updated or you will be outdated.”
“In any field, updation is very important. This is more so in the field of education where introduction of new courses and change in syllabus is very vital. All ITIs have been converted into advanced training centres. All 59 polytechnics will also updated very soon. In view of this, we had a meeting recently to discuss what kind of courses are required to prepare our students for their future careers,” he added.
Prof Reddy also stressed on the need to introduce courses in emerging and interdisciplinary streams.
“Recently, we also had a meeting with a number of vice-chancellors where we discussed the key academic agenda items, including the importance of systematic academic planning, trends and observations in UG and PG admissions for 2025-26, introduction of new courses in emerging and interdisciplinary areas. We also spoke about the launch of innovative programmes aligned with global and industry needs.”
“During our discussion, we realised that students were not enrolling for some courses in certain state-run institutions. Because of this, we thought we can come up with a few new courses,” he added.
Futuristic courses
The TGCHE chairman also revealed plans to involve industries in designing these new courses.
“We are planning to introduce a few futuristic courses. These include maritime, aviation and defence. We came up with this idea because none of the management (private) collages are offering aviation and other courses,” he informed.
“We will try to involve industries in designing these courses. The main objective is to make the students industry-ready,” he said.
Prof Reddy also said that the council is also trying to address the issues the students face, especially those related to communication.
“As communicating in English is one of the problems the students have been facing, we have come up with English learning material. TGCHE will also help universities in preparing not just syllabus but also reading material,” he added.