A survey about trends in engineering has revealed that computer-oriented streams continue to be the most sought after since these are available in most colleges and also attract the maximum placements.
The survey, conducted by UK-based Institution of Engineering Technology along with Feedback Consulting, covered 187 engineering colleges across the country including the Indian Institute(s) of Technology (IITs), the National Institute of Technology, 200 parents and 100 industry experts. It focused on three areas — trends in admissions as per stream and gender; trends in industries visiting campuses for placements; and opinions of stakeholders in academia/industry, besides asking parents about the state of engineering education in India.
As per the report, 81 per cent of colleges in India offer computer-oriented streams, which is what makes them so popular. The survey also talks about aeronautical engineering, which has become popular among students but is offered in less than 10 percent of colleges in the country.
The report further mentions that out of the industries visiting the colleges for placement, the largest number is from the IT sector, followed by manufacturing, e-commerce and electronics.
According to the report, many parents feel that an institute’s international affiliation is necessary for the students to land a good job. Most of them, however, do not agree with the idea that students take up engineering due to peer pressure. Industry experts, meanwhile, say that most students take up engineering for a job and not because they are passionate about it.
“For conducting the survey, colleges were segmented as Premier, Tier1, Tier 2 and Tier 3. We reached out to 187 colleges across the zones,” said Shekhar Sanyal, Country Head and Director of IET.
“Our vision is that in a few years the IET-Feedback Consulting Annual Report will serve as a reliable source to predict key patterns with respect to engineering resources graduating from colleges,” Mr. Sanyal added.
“The sampling methodology for industry was through network sampling. The surveyors reached out to senior managers and leaders across 8 to 10 segments and gathered perceptions of about 100 executives across industries and zones. The industry executives surveyed were in a position of either recruiting fresh graduates or had influence on recruitment. Details of parents of engineering students were gathered through placement coordinators in colleges. Telephonic interviews were conducted with 100 parents,” he said.
