Revision as of 17:35, 18 August 2015

Engineering education

GEEK TRAGEDY: PLOT WEAKENS

(In the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century), engineering education was booming in the country but now colleges are closing and thousands of seats have no takers. Sunday Times finds out how quality lost out to quantity

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

The Times of India 4 Aug 2013

Rangareddy in Telangana region is just about half the size of Pune. But this district of Andhra Pradesh could well be called India’s engineering headquarters. Its narrow lanes boast of over 500 engineering colleges, the largest concentration of such campuses anywhere in the world.

In the last 15 years, colleges mushroomed here on farmland. And the multiplier effect seen in Rangareddy was witnessed across the country as India came to become an engineernation with its 3,800 campuses that have an annual student intake capacity of 1.7 million. In 1947 there were only 38 engineering institutions with a total of 2,500 seats. 60 years on, in 2007, India’s 1,503 engineering colleges had 5.83 lakh seats on offer. “In 2013, India added a total of 1.3 lakh new seats in various engineering colleges,” says S S Mantha, chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex body that monitors the opening and running of professional colleges in the country.

But the glory days may have passed. Reports of vacant seats (80,000 in Tamil Nadu; 70,000 in MP; 50,000 in Maharashtra; and 7,800 in Gujarat), and colleges applying for closure are being seen as signs of interest in the field waning. The mood across campuses is gloomy, as placements have been slow and salaries lower. This is largely a result of the deceleration in the IT industry, which had fuelled the boom, and in manufacturing, which has also registered negative growth. “Capacity that was created in anticipation of demand remained unutilized because the economy failed us,” says National Institute of Technology Rourkela director Sunil Kumar Sarangi.

Students now know that all engineering colleges are not equal. Among the biggest concerns is the quality of teaching staff and curricula updated to industry requirements. Many colleges rely on visiting faculty, and teachers often do not have the prerequisite PhDs. An educationist from Tamil Nadu, who has advertised the sale of his four-year-old college, explains that given the AICTE prerequisites, setting up a college (which includes acquiring a certain amount of land, building labs and a library, acquiring university affiliation and hiring teachers among others) is hugely expensive. So until the college recovers those costs, most educators don’t even think of quality. Reportedly, in a 10-year business plan of establishing an institute, quality improvement comes in the fifth or sixth year.

Mantha admits that AICTE is increasingly receiving applications from colleges wanting to close down, but that is not an indication that the sheen of engineering is dulling. “What is happening is that students from rural regions are moving to the cities where they have a better scope of being placed. Colleges in the interior parts that do not have enough teachers or infrastructure are closing down,” he says, adding, “When an 18-year-old looks at his life three years on, he realizes that the chances of bagging a job are the highest if he or she pursues engineering.”

2012-15: 20 Odisha colleges almsot empty

The Times of India, Aug 15 2015

Ashok Pradhan

Not even 10 takers for seats in 20 Odisha engg colleges

At the end of the engineering admission process across Odisha, around 20 colleges failed to reach the double digits in student intake raising serious doubts about their future. Around 30,000 of the total 46,000 BTech seats remain vacant. While this has been the trend for the past three years, the situation was never this bad.

Shyam Sundar Patnaik, vice-chancellor of Biju Patnaik University of Technology , to which the engineering colleges are affiliated, said he would review the situation and take a call. “While students' interest can't be compromised, we also have to think of the entrepreneurs who have opened the institutions,“ he said.

The admission to engineer ing colleges is conducted by the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination Committee, an independent body , and BPUT has no role to play in it. Though engineering seats lying vacant is a national phenomenon, especially in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra and Telengana, there are certain specific reasons behind the poor admission record in Odisha.

The Odisha Professional Education Act, 2007, bars engineering colleges in the state from admitting more than 15% students from outside the state. “Maybe when the Act was passed, such a cap on admitting outside state students was appropriate. Personally , I feel, the government should review the Act to accommodate more nonOdisha students against vacant seats,“ the VC said.

Secondly , counselling in Odisha is done after other states and universities. “Within the state also, private and deemed universities conduct their admission way before BPUT,“ said Odisha private engineering college association secretary Binod Dash.

NIT Rourkela director Sunil Sarangi said it was a cause of serious concern. “Running these courses will not be financially viable,“ he added. Sarangi said the government must take steps to strengthen school education and reduce dropout rate.