A new model of education is infused in higher education frame work to enhance the curriculum in accordance with technology adoption, changing industry requirement, changing pursuit of students and changing expectations of communities. The Institute has introduced Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) in 2016. In CBCS, programme students are provided with a choice to pick courses from the endorsed referred core, elective or minor or soft skill courses as to learn at their own pace and the entire appraisal is evaluated dependent on a credit system. Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) and Elective system is aim to reconceived the curriculum keeping in pace with the liberalization and globalization in education. Choice Based Credit System CBCS and Elective system permits students with an easy mode of mobility to versatility to different instructive establishments spread across the world along with the facility of transfer of credits earned by them.

To expand skill-based education & enhance student learning outcomes in terms of their grades as well as skills, some crucial changes are followed in the traditional teaching-learning system. The option to pick subjects & multidisciplinary education approach are the best takeaways. The student-centric approach of education initiates interest and applicability in the scope of the study. CBCS and Elective system follow interdisciplinary methodology and symbiosis of ideas, speculations, concepts, theories, techniques, and perspectives from two or more disciplines to promote fundamental understanding and propel crucial comprehension to solve problems.

The CBCS and Elective system provide an opening for the students to decide courses from the given multiple courses being evaluated by way of unconventional means of grading system which will upgrade students' performance in examinations. The present alarming situation encompasses transformation and restrategizing of education framework, by presenting innovations as well as developing learner-centric approach in the entire education delivery mechanism and globally followed evaluation system as well. The choice based credit system and Elective system do not just offer openings and roads to learn core subjects but also exploring additional avenues of learning beyond the core subjects for holistic development of an individual. The CBCS and Elective system will certainly facilitate us bench mark courses with best global scholarly practices.

The academic mission of Mahendra Arts and Science College is its life-long commitment to the holistic development of the rural community through quality education and this model has been adopted as an academic discipline of the college. The curriculum which has been prepared meticulously by various departments of Arts and Science streams emphasizes gender, environmental sustainability, human values and professional ethics.

The curriculum offers intellectual and value-centered formation by applying ethical and moral principles in personal and professional forefront. They are imbibed with a secular-spiritual formation which offers avenues for harmony and promotes secular spiritualism.

The central focus of this programme is to enable students to develop a sense of social justice by creating awareness about Human rights, Diversity, Social inequality, Caste discrimination, Women Empowerment, and Environmental sustainability. It empowers students to analyze major environmental concerns and work towards sustainability, enabling them to develop a sense of belongingness to nature.

The science streams offer UG and PG programmes in Bio-technology, Chemistry and Physics where the courses sensitize the students in environmental issues and sustainability, creating skills for better understanding of the environmental crisis and its remediation in their respective disciplines. They also create a platform to hone their skills in professional ethics interwoven with human values.

The arts streams offer UG and PG programmes in Tamil, English, Maths, Statistics, JMC, Social work, Commerce, Commerce with Computer Applications, BBA and Computer Science in which the courses sensitize the student on Gender, Environment and Sustainability, Culture, Human values and Professional Ethics. The course enables the students to understand and work towards resolving the challenges in the above mentioned areas.

The College is located in a semi-rural part of the district surrounded by industries. Hence, utmost care is taken to design the curriculum to cater to the need of the location by incorporating cutting-edge knowledge and skill sets to make students develop competency at the local, national and global level. The curriculum design is based on the guidelines suggested by University Grants Commission (UGC).

Periodical revision and systematic revamping are done in UG and PG Programmes. Before the Board of Studies meeting, Academic Advisory Committee meeting is conducted to obtain the opinion/suggestion from industry experts on curriculum and syllabus. The suggestions received from the industry experts on curriculum and syllabus are discussed for approval in the Board of Studies meeting with the following board members namely University Representative, Subject Expert, Industrialist, Alumni, Chairperson and Internal Members. Inputs provided by the board of studies are incorporated in the syllabus for further approval of Academic Council. At the end of each semester, feedback on the curriculum is obtained from all the stake-holders and the syllabus revision is carried out accordingly.

The College follows Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) pattern to enhance the competency of the students with a focus on employability. Outcome-Based Education (OBE) has been implemented to bridge the gap between teaching and learning process and to enhance student's employability. The curricula are framed with well-defined Programme Outcomes (POs), Programme Specific Outcomes (PSOs) and Course Outcomes (Cos) and they are mapped to suit the industrial and societal needs. In addition, Lab manual for practical-oriented subjects is prepared.

Syllabi have been designed to ensure the holistic development of the students' personality thereby making them socially responsible citizens. To ensure holistic development, Soft skills, General Knowledge, Test of Reasoning, Information Technology, Environmental studies and Yoga are made mandatory for all the Under-Graduate students. The same way, for all PG courses a paper in Human Rights is made compulsory in order to make them understand the basic/constitutional rights of citizens. Curriculum is Industry-driven with provision for Study Tours/Industrial and Visits/Internship Training. As the college houses students from other states, curriculum design focuses on national level requirements too.

The curriculum, thus prepared is submitted in the Board of Studies which was constituted adhering to the guidelines of the University, TANCHE and UGC. After getting the approval of the Board of Studies, it is presented in the Academic Council for approval. The curriculum after getting the approval is finalized. The autonomy that the institution enjoys facilitates the restructuring of the curriculum, taking into consideration the suggestions of the stakeholders.

In order to enrich students in various aspects of current social issues, courses such as Gender Equality, Human Values, Environmental Sustainability, and Women Studies have been amalgamated into the curriculum. These courses instill essential moral values and ethical values in one's mind thereby upholding the "Value Based Education". An Industry-related course for all the programmes is introduced to materialize the vision and the mission of the Institution. Inter-departmental courses offered across departments provide opportunity for students to learn their interested courses and gain extra credit points to boost their standard among the competitors.

Regulatory bodies like UGC and NAAC have directed to design standard policies for regulating and enhancing the performance coefficient of educational Institutes. Collecting feedback from various stakeholders has been a challenging task. The students being the key stake holders are apprehensive about the anticipated outcomes of the curriculum designing and syllabus. The IQAC cell collects customary feedback on curriculum and syllabus from various stake holders comprising of students, teachers, alumnae and employers through structured questionnaires written feedback.

The collected feedback is scrutinized for continuous improvement in curriculum design and the subsequent recommendations and suggestions are communicated to the faculty members and Board of Studies for consideration in the forthcoming curriculum revision. The important aspect of this feedback is to equip every student with competent and qualitative teaching-learning methodologies thereby leading to radiant academic, social and individual progression.

• Curriculum development comprises of the following phases.
• Stakeholder's feedback (Students, Teachers, Alumnae and Employers).
• Feedback Analysis
• Requirement Analysis
• Academic policies and benchmarks
• Board of Studies
• Finalization and implementation of curriculum.

Separate questionnaires for the students, teachers, alumnae and employers are prepared by an expert team headed by the Head of the Institution and IQAC Coordinator, Chairpersons of various boards and subject experts. The feedback questionnaires consist of components relevant to the stakeholders and the statements are rated by the stakeholders on a four point scale and five-point scale.

The feedback from the key stakeholders' - students has a positive impact in bridging the gap between industrial requirements and academics. Teaching community feedback reflects the ability of any Institution in incorporating new topics in the syllabus, adoption of new techniques and strategies in teaching and opportunities for research activities.

In this global scenario, the employability/entrepreneurship/skill development efforts have been shattered across the nations. So, there is a need for quick reorganization of the employability/entrepreneurship/skill development ecosystem and its promotion is necessary to suit the needs of the Industry. The students can improve their employability/entrepreneurship/skill development with the highly effective courses framed in our curriculum.

Our courses equip students with the skills needed in a global workspace. We give various domain specific skill training programmes which are mapped to the global skill qualification and industrial standards. These initiatives will help to enhance the inert potential of the students. The students will acquire personal qualities such as self-confidence, creativity, the ability to take initiatives, as well as the willingness to take calculated risks through these employability / entrepreneurship/skill development courses. They learn to save, invest and grow in their career. These competencies help them to select and shape their career path as employees or entrepreneurs. Our curriculum structured in an action oriented way, more than 50 percent of the courses consists of practical knowledge. It helps them for identifying business opportunities; assess resources for setting up and steering a business, and learning from successful entrepreneurs in their companies and in the classroom.

The introduction of these courses creates a chain of business creating jobs for the students. When an industry expands, it leads to the expansion of its associate Industries. Similarly, Entrepreneurship and development complements each other. The future development of the countries requires a strong logistics network, skilled workforce and capital investors. Hence, Entrepreneurs can provide the much-needed push for workers to gain skills and profitability. More employed individuals add to the national income of a country through tax revenue. Moreover, the Government can spend more on security and infrastructure development, increasing the robustness of the country's economy.

The quality of the syllabus is one of the performance indicators of quality teaching and learning process. It is the need of hour to build an well-defined curriculum and syllabus for the benefit of our students. While framing the syllabus focus on the course content and objectives have been made to have a preview on pre and co-requisites for the courses. Considering the parameters such as Employability, Entrepreneurship, and skill developments, updation of the syllabus for enhancing the bright future of the students has been executed. Based on the feedback collected from the stake holders, their suggestions have been incorporated in the syllabus. Besides the degree of difficultness of students to learn the subjects and the knowledge level attainment, the refinement in syllabus and curriculum has been done.

Student feedback through course evaluation summary and course exit survey also plays a vital role in redefining the curriculum and syllabus aspects. Introduction of industry allied courses are also introduced, such that students can get directly benefited from the crucial resources from the industry. Apart from the technical aspects we have a wide focus on the social views, environmental views, ethical views, economic views in the curriculum. We offer an excellent opportunity for the students in the name of electives, in which students can opt their professional and open electives of their own choice. We do offer an subjects of all the domains of the respective branches, such that they can opt as per their wish and gain the knowledge. On a broad view, the primary focus is attaining the Progamme Outcomes. We have various curriculum refining strategies which maps out the arc of the course. In order to increase the ease nature of the courses, we introduce new innovative teaching practices, through which the easy explanation of the concepts are introduced and the understanding of concepts are made clear.

Field project integrates theory and practice by providing students with an opportunity to work on real-world challenges. It can be used to learn about the functioning and manufacturing procedures of a factory. Besides this, student shall learn about the geographical factors of the region for the specific products /equipment.

Internships are popular amongst graduate and undergraduate students to gain research or valuable work experience from the factory/industry. Additionally, there has been a raise in remote/virtual internships - which in turn improve the ability to learn virtually of the global companies. The vast numbers of internship opportunities are available to indicate the importance of an internship in today's world.

The project work completed by students will provide the opportunity to learn at home or at college and in a different format than the usual lecture / activity / assignments. It is an easy way to integrate literacy and creativity into learning and assessment. Projects are inherently flexible, to expose their innovation in talent individual or in team. It allows the students to demonstrate his or her capabilities while working independently. It shows the students ability to apply desired skills such as doing research. It develops the student's ability to work with his or her peers, building teamwork and group skills. These projects may collection from little implementations to most important inventions that might require diving deep into concepts. Learning take away from this project is the knowledge that will stay with the students throughout the carrier life. It offers a bridge to organizational growth and independent learning for students. Assigning projects on a regular basis allow them to work on projects even if they are not into the project-based curriculum.

Project-based learning not only provides opportunities for students to collaborate or drive their own learning, but it also make them to improve skills such as problem solving, to develop additional integral skills to their future, such as critical thinking and time management. It provides an opportunity to create authentic projects which are personal and meaningful to them. Students have the chance to pursue their creativity in framing /designing a product interests and as a result, it provides more opportunity for learning for students and faculty. During great projects students are connected to each other, experts, multiple subject areas, powerful ideas, and the world via the Web. The best projects combine multiple subject areas and call upon the prior knowledge and expertise of each student.

The ever-changing global scenario makes the world more competitive and requires high levels of lateral thinking and the spirit of entrepreneurship to cope up with the emerging challenges. Many a times, the defined skill sets that are being imparted to students today with Programme Specific Objectives in educational institutions become redundant sooner than later due to rapid technological advancements. No university curriculum can adequately cover all areas of importance or relevance. It is important for higher educational institutions to supplement the curriculum to make students better prepared to meet the industrial demands as well as to develop their own interests and aptitudes.

The Programme interested in designing a Value Added Course should undertake Training Need Analysis, discuss with the generic employers, alumni and industrial experts to identify the gaps and emerging trends before designing the syllabus. Any new Value Added Course developed by a Programme should be placed before the Board of Studies and Faculty (Standing Committee) and approved by the Academic Council. The course offered should not be the same as any course listed in the curriculum of the respective programme or any other programme offered in University Departments.

The Value added course (one credit) of 30 hours duration shall be evaluated through assessments tests for 100 marks. The one credit courses shall be offered by a Programme with the prior approval from respective Board of Studies. If the total credit thus earned is three or more, then one elective course may be exempted. A student may be permitted to take up VAC from other departments with approval from both the Heads of the Departments.