Bengaluru: Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has made it mandatory to geo-tag photos and videos for AICTE activities students are required to complete.As per AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), engineering students must earn 100 activity points, which will be reflected in their eight-semester grade card. The activities can be spread over the years at the students’ convenience. They include helping local schools enhance enrolment or achieve good results, automation of local activities, assisting in the marketing of rural produce, skilling the rural population and tourism promotion.VTU announced that the activity points tracking system (APTS) app will be launched for the monitoring, verification and compliance of AICTE activity points. Students have been asked to upload only geo-tagged photographs and location details for every activity undertaken through the VTU app.Activities without valid geo-tagged photographic evidence will not be considered for evaluation, the umbrella university for all engineering colleges in the state, warned. “Some students sit at home and upload fake certificates. To put an end to such malpractice, VTU has now instructed that only geo-tagged photos must be uploaded. This will prevent students from cheating. If students are caught committing such mistakes, their final mark sheets will be withheld as a warning,” said S Vidyashankar, Vice-Chancellor, VTU.Geo-tagging photos in assignments is now a common practice across colleges and higher educational institutions. BOX:Student grievance portal launchedVTU has started a new student grievance portal, e-Vidhyarthi Mithra, where students can submit their grievances. It is a step forward in providing services to students by directly connecting them with the vice-chancellor, the university said.“Students can register and lodge a complaint on the portal. Upon lodging a complaint, a unique grievance ID will be assigned, using which the grievance will be assessed by the VC and his team on a priority basis and resolved within the specified timeline,” the university said.
