The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on Wednesday formally released its new model curriculum for engineering and technical courses reducing the credits to be earned for an undergraduate degree from 220 to 160.
The time freed would be utilised for practical and creative activities, including hackathons, an official said.
The top technical education regulator had also decided to make internships mandatory for the award of degrees, as part of the exercise.
While there were internships earlier too, an official said, there were no concrete guidelines. Since all institutions did not have mandatory internships, technical graduates were sometimes found unemployable for industry.
This was set to change with the new guidelines, it is felt.
The internship would have a minimum of 14 credits. Each credit means 40-45 hours of work.
