Need for Reengineering Engineering Education in India

 

“In our country, engineers are not able to come up very fast. We (engineers) are not taking enough efforts to keep ourselves up-to-date. Engineering colleges or institutes that we have in the country, according to me, are producing very sub-standard quality of engineers,” said E Sreedharan, a Padma Vibhushan awardee, credited for successfully steering challenging projects like Konkan Rail and Delhi Metro. He also expressed his anguish and concern about the IITians heading to foreign countries for higher studies or for better employment.

India has the largest number of engineers as well as the largest number of engineering education infrastructure in the world. The first engineering college was established by the British at Roorkee in the year1847 followed by the College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai in 1859.As on 2021, India annually produces over a million engineering graduates. India’s technical education infrastructure includes 4200 engineering colleges, 3400 polytechnics and 200 schools of planning and architecture.

Out of the million engineering graduates produced ever year, less than 5% of the engineers are churned out by the pan-India national level autonomous institutes created by the acts of parliament like the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs), National Institutes of Technologies (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technologies IIITs). The balance 95% of the engineers are produced by the private and non-autonomous state level engineering institutes, which have to obtain the approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) the regulatory authority.

It is observed that apart from the 50 elite engineering colleges in India that produce about 15000 finest engineers every year, the rest mostly produce mediocre and unemployable engineers. As per the eighth edition of India Skills Report (ISR) 2021, only 46.82 % of engineering graduates are employable. Many reputed engineering firms are reluctant to hire fresh engineers due to the ever-increasing skill gap. Many of the firms prefer to employ diploma holders than the graduate engineers as the former is more exposed to the practical aspects of engineering and also come at a lesser cost.

According to the industry experts, the present breeds of graduate engineers have become more of executioners and lack practical application knowledge and conceptual clarity. The present engineering assessment system is based on rote learning, without understanding the concepts. The outdated student friendly examination / assessment process facilitates scoring exceptionally high marks, which has no practical relevance. As a result, it is common to find an electrical engineer unable to do even basic household electric connections and a mechanical engineer not knowing the difference between a conventional milling process and a grinding process. Most of the knowledge imparted in engineering education is of little use to an industry and to make up the shortfall, firms provide extensive on the job training for all fresh graduates joining them. The industry is on the lookout for work-ready graduates and reluctant to spend unnecessary resources and efforts to bridge the glaring gap observed among present day engineers.

It is time the quality of engineering education is reengineered to meet the changing needs. It is necessary to reinvent and resurrect engineering education delivery system in the country and align with the globally recognized engineering institutions of repute before it slides down further in the valley death.

     Some of the possible ways for resurrection are given below:

1.      Engineering education need to focus more on practical learning and understanding. The present system heavily focuses on content delivery than knowledge delivery. To impart practical learning more projects are to be added as a part of assessment. Students shall be encouraged to take part in various technical competitions and events and this aspect may be included as a part of assessment.

2.      Presently, the curriculum requires the students to do a group project in their areas of specializations. This has become a ritual and formality as most of the projects are outsourced. Institutions / colleges can make this meaningful by their active involvement / participation and monitoring mechanism.

3.      More thrust is to be given to the industry internship process. For this to happen, the institutions need to establish good contacts and rapports with the industries and industry associations. Alumni can also contribute in arranging internships. Merely spending a few days or weeks may not be sufficient to gain practical knowledge and extended periods of internship may be helpful.

4.      Undertaking a real project while undergoing internship may be a further value addition. The industries can use the students for their in-house improvement projects. This will expose the students to solve real-world problems with the help of the experienced company engineers.

5.      Upgrade and update the present outdated curricula. Leading industrialists, industry experts and industry bodies are to be roped in for formulating the syllabi and its regular upgradation. This will ensure what is taught is relevant and as per the emerging needs of the industry.

6.      Good infrastructure ecosystem like, fully equipped laboratories, workshops, IT facilities, class rooms with updated resources like virtual reality, augmented reality etc to stimulate critical thinking and practical learning.

7.      Finally, good quality faculty with the right mix of academic qualification and industry experience. Most of the colleges compromise on quality faculty to save substantially on overall cost. It is also true that only a few brilliant engineers take up teaching out of passion and the rest become faculty since they are unemployable elsewhere. A compensation package at par with the industry will attract the best faculty who in turn can create exceptional engineers.

There are too many specializations with considerable overlapping and this could be streamlined. Engineering seats in many colleges remain unfilled. AICTE has decided not to grant permission to any new affiliated engineering college. This is a good decision and it shall now tighten up its surveillance on the functioning colleges. The regulatory body can’t remain aloof and a silent spectator after granting permission. The regulatory body shall be held accountable and responsible if any college fails to deliver quality education.

The role of an engineer is no longer limited to the conventional manufacturing and industrial fields. The industry offers a spectrum of opportunities for the aspiring professionals. Experts believe that Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT) and Robotics among other newer technologies are set to redefine the future of the engineering industry.

Narendra Modi, the honourable Prime Minister of India famously said, ‘In today’s world, it is the engineers who dream, research, create and contribute to producing the most prolific products, which enable developments that touch every sphere of life. Hence, it would not be wrong to say that no nation can progress beyond its engineering sophistication.’

Engineers are essential and invaluable assets of the nation. Hence it is important for the engineering colleges to strive and provide industry relevant education which will allow them to be productive at work from the day one.

 

 

Dr. C K Sreedharan

Website- www.sreedharanck.com        

Amazon Author Central - amazon.com/author/sreedharanck

Blog – sreedharanck.blogspot.com