With poor English communication skills hampering the employability of engineering graduates, the Anna University has decided to conduct a bridge course in English for first year BE/BTech students from this academic year 2013-14. Already, the university had launched a bridge course in Mathematics to familiarise engineering students with important formulae. The new 15- hour English bridge course will be compulsory for first year engineering students and will be taught in the first semester, before the commencement of regular English classes.
The course will focus on the essential and fundamental Plus Two level English necessary for understanding Engineering English. At the end of the bridge course, an assessment test will be conducted and it will form part of continuous assessment to be considered as first assessment, officials added.
In the Anna University Department (CEG, ACT and MIT campuses), 50 per cent marks are allotted for internal assessment (average of three tests) and another 50 per cent for external assessment. Whereas, in the case of affiliated engineering colleges, 20 per cent marks are allotted for internal assessment (average of three tests) and remaining 80 per cent is for external assessment.