VTU 2025 Scheme First-Year Subjects: The Complete List

In the 2025 scheme, first year is nearly the same for every branch. A Civil student and a CSE student sit almost the same timetable. What actually separates two first-year students is not their branch — it is their cycle.

Physics cycle and chemistry cycle

VTU splits every first-year class into two halves. One half takes Applied Physics, the other takes Applied Chemistry. That split drags a few more courses along with it, which is why two students in the same branch can have genuinely different timetables in their first year.

• Physics cycle — Applied Physics, Computer-Aided Engineering Drawing, a Programme Specific Course, and its lab.
• Chemistry cycle — Applied Chemistry, a Programming Language Course, Communication Skills, Indian Constitution & Engineering Ethics, and Introduction to AI and Applications.

Both cycles take the same Applied Mathematics, the same Engineering Science Course, and the same project courses. Sort out which cycle you are in before you buy anything, because the textbooks do not overlap.

The courses everyone takes

These sit outside the cycle split. Every first-year student takes them.

Applied Mathematics — one paper per stream

Mathematics is the one subject where your stream genuinely changes the paper, not just the section.

• 1BMATC101 Differential Calculus and Linear Algebra: CV Stream
• 1BMATE101 Differential Calculus and Linear Algebra: EEE stream
• 1BMATM101 Differential Calculus and Linear Algebra: ME Stream
• 1BMATS101 Calculus and Linear Algebra: CSE Stream

Semester 2 continues the same four streams:

• 1BMATC201 Differential Calculus and Numerical Methods: CV Stream
• 1BMATE201 Calculus, Laplace Transform And Numerical Techniques: EEE stream
• 1BMATM201 Multivariable Calculus and Numerical Methods: ME Stream
• 1BMATS201 Numerical Methods: CSE Stream

Two things to watch. The EEE paper is the odd one out in semester 2 — it keeps Laplace transforms where the other three move to numerical methods, so check which stream's paper you are actually enrolled in. Reading the wrong stream's paper is the most common first-year mistake, and it stays invisible until the first internal test.

If you are in ECE, confirm your mathematics paper against your college's copy of the scheme. The 2025 catalogue lists this paper under four streams and ECE is not one of them, so you are either taking the EEE-stream paper or one your college names separately.

Engineering Science Course (ESC-I / ESC-II)

Listed as five options, lettered A to E. The letter is the last character of the code, and the semester digit is the first digit of the number.

• 1BESC104A / 1BESC204A Building Sciences and Mechanics
• 1BESC104B / 1BESC204B Introduction to Electrical Engineering
• 1BESC104C / 1BESC204C Introduction to Electronics & Communication Engineering
• 1BESC104D / 1BESC204D Introduction to Mechanical Engineering
• 1BESC104E / 1BESC204E Essentials of Information Technology

Project and activity courses

• 1BIDTL158 Innovation and Design Thinking Lab (project-based learning) — semester 1
• 1BPRJ258 Interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning — semester 2

Physics cycle courses

Applied Physics — one paper per stream

• 1BPHYC102 / 1BPHYC202 Physics for Sustainable Structural Systems (CV stream)
• 1BPHEE102 / 1BPHEE202 Physics of Electrical Engineering Materials (EEE stream)
• 1BPHEC102 / 1BPHEC202 Quantum Physics and Electronics Sensors (ECE stream)
• 1BPHYM102 / 1BPHYM202 Physics of Materials (Mech stream)
• 1BPHYS102 / 1BPHYS202 Quantum Physics and Applications (CSE stream)

Computer-Aided Engineering Drawing — one paper per stream

• 1BCEDC103 / 1BCEDC203 for the CV stream
• 1BCEDE103 / 1BCEDE203 for the EEE stream
• 1BCEDEC103 / 1BCEDEC203 for the ECE stream
• 1BCEDM103 / 1BCEDM203 for the ME stream
• 1BCEDS103 / 1BCEDS203 for the CSE stream

Programme Specific Course (PSC)

This one is set by your branch rather than your cycle, and it is where the list gets long — PSC is offered across the widest range of programmes.

• 1BBEE105 / 1BBEE205 Basics of Electrical Engineering — EEE
• 1BCIV105 / 1BCIV205 Engineering Mechanics — CV
• 1BECE105 / 1BECE205 Fundamentals of Electronics & Communication Engineering — ECE
• 1BEIT105 / 1BEIT205 Programming in C — CSE
• 1BEME105 / 1BEME205 Elements of Mechanical Engineering — ME
• 1BEAE105 / 1BEAE205 Elements of Aeronautical Engineering
• 1BEBT105 / 1BEBT205 Elements of Biotechnology and Biomimetics
• 1BECHE105 / 1BECHE205 Elements of Chemical Engineering
• 1BSSA105 / 1BSSA205 Principles of Soil Science and Agronomy

Programme-Specific Course Lab (PSCL)

Each PSC carries a lab in the same numbering family — the 105 becomes 107.

• 1BBEEL107 / 1BBEEL207 Basic Electrical Lab — EEE
• 1BECEL107 / 1BECEL207 Fundamentals of Electronics & Communication Engineering Lab — ECE
• 1BMEML107 / 1BMEML207 Mechanics and Materials Lab — CV
• 1BPOPL107 / 1BPOPL207 C Programming Lab — CSE
• 1BEMEL107 / 1BEMEL207 Elements of Mechanical Engineering Lab — ME
• 1BEAEL107 / 1BEAEL207 Elements of Aeronautical Engineering Lab
• 1BEBTL107 / 1BEBTL207 Elements of Biotechnology Lab
• 1BECHEL107 / 1BECHEL207 Elements of Chemical Engineering Lab
• 1BSSAL107 / 1BSSAL207 Soil Science and Agronomy Field Lab

Humanities and soft skills

• 1BKBK109 / 1BKBK209 Balake Kannada
• 1BKSK109 / 1BKSK209 Samskrutika Kannada
• 1BSKS106 / 1BSKS206 Soft Skills

You take one Kannada paper, not both. Your college tells you which.

Chemistry cycle courses

Applied Chemistry — one paper per stream

Four papers, not five: EEE and ECE share one.

• 1BCHEC102 / 1BCHEC202 Applied Chemistry for Sustainable Structure & Material Design (CV)
• 1BCHEE102 / 1BCHEE202 Applied Chemistry for Emerging Electronics and Futuristic Devices (EEE, ECE)
• 1BCHEM102 / 1BCHEM202 Applied Chemistry for Advanced Metal Protection and Sustainable Energy Systems (ME)
• 1BCHES102 / 1BCHES202 Applied Chemistry for Smart Systems (CSE)

Programming Language Course (PLC)

Two options, split by whether your programme is IT or not.

• 1BPLC105B / 1BPLC205B Python Programming (for CSE and allied programmes)
• 1BPLC105E / 1BPLC205E Introduction to C Programming (for non-IT programmes)

Ability Enhancement and mandatory courses

• 1BENG106 / 1BENG206 Communication Skills
• 1BICO107 / 1BICO207 Indian Constitution & Engineering Ethics (non-credit, mandatory)
• 1BAIA103 / 1BAIA203 Introduction to AI and Applications

How to read a VTU subject code

Almost every code here follows the same shape, and once you can read one you can read all of them.

1B    first-year bachelor course
MAT   the subject area - Mathematics
C     the stream - Civil (CV)
101   semester 1, paper 01

The stream letter is the useful part. In the papers that exist separately for each stream — mathematics, physics, chemistry and drawing — the letter sits between the subject tag and the number:

• C — Civil (CV)
• E — Electrical (EEE)
• EC — Electronics and Communication (ECE)
• M — Mechanical (ME)
• S — Computer Science (CSE)

Two more things follow from the digits. The first digit of the three-digit number is the semester, so 101 and 201 are the same paper in the two halves of the year — 1BMATC101 in semester 1, 1BMATC201 in semester 2. And a letter or a second digit at the end marks a variant, which is how ESC's options A to E and PLC's B and E are told apart.

The pattern is not universal. Codes like 1BECE105, 1BIDTL158 and 1BBEE105 have no stream letter at all, because those papers are not split by stream in the first place. Read the middle letters as a label for the subject area, not as a rigid field.

A note on titles

The codes are stable. Course titles are not, quite. VTU's own documents and the affiliated colleges' syllabus handbooks word some of these differently — the same code can appear as one title in the university's list and a slightly different one on a college notice board. If a title here does not match what your college printed, compare the code, not the wording, and treat the college's version as the one you will be examined on.

Finding your own list

First year is also the year the list is shortest and the confusion is highest, because every subject is new and none of the codes mean anything yet. It gets easier from the third semester, when your branch takes over from your cycle and the papers stop splitting five ways.

One VTU carries the 2025 first-year catalogue with every code above, split by cycle and stream, and shows you only the subjects that apply to your branch and cycle rather than the whole list. Each subject links to its syllabus, and the same screen tracks how much of it you have covered. It is free on Android.