Engineering Education

ngineering education in India has long been dominated by the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Regional Engineering Colleges. The Indian Institute of Technologies have earned a reputation for graduating outstanding engineers who have risen to the top of their profession globally. However, critics call it more a phenomena of admitting the best and not necessarily the institutes having top-notch professors. Other engineering colleges such as the Regional Engineering Colleges have also made huge strides. But the majority of the engineering colleges in India rely on rote as the teaching methodology. There is an increasing awareness that the engineering education system has to be revamped. Reports reveal that only 25% of the engineering graduates are employable. Several companies have set-up their own training institutes to fill the gap between what the education system delivers and what is needed in the market place. Also there is a dearth of engineers in areas other than software engineering. Because of opportunities and prevailing trends, most engineers gravitate towards computer engineering. This has exposed a gap in engineering skills for other professions – some that are just emerging as competitive areas.
Engineering in India compared to engineering in North America and EuropeEngineering profession in India is still evolving. Though Indian engineers are often considered the best in their mathematical abilities, R&D and high level engineering work still lags in India. The Indian industry recognizes this and is fast catching-up. They offer India as a low-cost destination for multinationals looking to reduce costs for high level work such as Research and Development. India has been especially successful in putting her engineers to work in several back-office functions. Many of them are employed in technical support. A lot of Indian companies also send their engineers on assignments to Europe and North America because they provide low-age alternative to local engineers. This helps the Indian companies to win contracts due to the price differential. This advantage has helped the software industry in carving out a niche for itself as a low cost, quality provider of technical work.
Civil engineering is also gaining ground in India. Because of the impetus on infrastructure, civil engineers are well in demand. However this demand is domestic only. Another emerging area is bio-medical engineering that is being pushed by the government.
However, some other fields of engineering are not well-developed such as offshore, nuclear etc. The reason is a lack of private participation in these industries.