Engineering education creates specialised human capital which is the key for a competitive global market. But the craze for engineering studies and to become an engineer has been declining in India.
As per the recent studies and AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), it is reported that 105 engineering colleges were closed in 2018-19. Additionally, in 2020-21, as many as 59 engineering colleges offering under graduate, post graduate and diploma programmes were closed in India. The same pattern for engineering education is observed in Odisha also. As per AICTE particularly in engineering and technical programme segment, there are 176 private self financing institutions and 55 other institutions, including Government institutions and deemed to be universities which offer under graduate, post graduate and diploma programmes in Odisha in 2020-21.
As far as students intake under engineering and technical programme in Odisha is concerned, there are 87,918 students who have enrolled in graduate, post graduate and diploma programmes in Odisha for the year 2020-21.Private self financing engineering institutions have 67,347 students and rest 20,571 students are in Government , deemed to be universities( Private) and deemed to be universities (Government). There is a marginal increase in the students’ enrolments in engineering studies in graduate, post graduate and diploma programmes in Odisha for the year 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20. Further adding to this data , the AISHE -20 report says that in last five years from 2015-16 to 2019-20 there has been a growth of 11.4% in total student enrolment in national level, particularly in higher education. In the case of Odisha, it is has been observed that there is also a substantial increase of 8.7% in student enrolment in last five years from 2015 to 2020.
In the national level, there is a growth of 0.8% in Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) from 26.3% in 2018-19 to 27.1 % in 2019-20 as per AISHE -20 report. It is also reported that many private self-financing institutions are still struggling to enrol engineering students whereas others particularly deemed to be Universities (private) don’t face any problem in this regard. However, a new academic year for engineering programmes is approaching. Students, parents and institutions are gearing up for new admission.
Amidst this a report by Shisha.com, a popular online portal in India to select colleges for higher education, titled Engineering Admission Outlook Report -2021 is published. The aim of the report is to find out the trends such as social, geographical and market trend to choose engineering studies.
Further this report focuses on the real time analysis and kaleidoscopic way to choose a better engineering college including branch. Let’s analyse this report. There is a decline of 10% in the engineering aspirants who appeared in entrance examination in north and central India. But the situation is unchanged in eastern and western parts of India. More than 50% aspirants appeared entrance examination more than two times for a better rank. The JEE Main is losing its grip. Preference for Manipal Entrance Test (MET) and Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology Entrance Exam (KIITEE) has increased by 20% among engineering aspirants. It is also reported that the preference for KIIT is spiking up . This private university in Odisha is ranked 30th in the Overall Category among Indian universities by the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2021.
As far as General Engineering (overall category) in the country is concerned, it has achieved 15th rank. Further, the KIIT ranked 201+ globally in Times Higher Education Impact Rankings. 42% of engineering aspirants prefer metro cities or any larger cities in their home States.
As many as 31.5% engineering aspirants from eastern part of India are very much open to join college in any part of India. But the highest preference to study is in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. Students from southern part of India prefer the colleges in their region. Bengaluru is no more in the highest preference city to study engineering as stated by Shiskha.com report.
In previous years, the students had to join colleges as per their entrance examination rankings. But recently this pattern of choosing college has been replaced by some other as well as strong attributes such as placement, course fees, industrial training, internship programmes, interactive sessions and doubt clearing by institutions.
Further, skill development programmes, experienced faculties with industrial experience, well versed lab and infrastructure are also in the nomenclature to choose any engineering colleges. Career counselling, certification programmes, quality online classes and budget for start-ups have also played a key role in choosing college. Computer Science Engineering (CSE), Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) and Information Technology (IT) are in top three preferred specialisations for engineering students. Mechanical and Civil Engineering have lost their rankings to ECE and IT. Often, social contribution of an engineering college is also taken as one of the strong factors.
For example KIIT’s contribution to enhance literature, sports and marginal groups has placed it in a better place in academic world. Quality of education and institution’s performance are the primary concern for admission in engineering programme as clamoured by many colleges. Quality of education is very difficult to measure and often very vague to define.
The Annual Employability Survey 2019 discloses that 80 per cent of Indian engineers are not fit for any job in the competitive global knowledge economy. Further a report on engineering colleges by Vivekananda International Foundation-2019 says that less than 2 per cent of the colleges have scored above 50 per cent of marks in the NIRF; less than 5 per cent of the engineering graduates pass graduate attitude test in engineering (GATE); less than 5 per cent of the engineering programmes are accredited by NBA with ‘full accreditation’.
This prevailing pandemic compels almost all engineering colleges in Odisha to go for online examination where chances of malpractice are minimal. So better we should be very introspective to analyse the pass percentage ratio of engineering colleges in Odisha. An engineering college’s quality of education must be defined along with the innovation, patents and on-going research projects.
(Dr Parida is Assistant Professor in Sociology; email- abash.parida@gmail.com )
