The increasing number of unemployed engineering graduates has sparked a drift towards courses that promise better placement opportunities. Unsettled by the current trend, engineering colleges in Kerala stare at an uncertain future.
Vice Chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council P.M. Rajan Gurukkal holds commercialisation and privatisation for the state of affairs.
Unchecked proliferation of self-financing engineering colleges has resulted in a massive fall in academic standards with no worthwhile effort being made to ensure quality.
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“The transition from students to engineers seldom takes place in our colleges. As a result, youngsters who have completed courses in various engineering streams could not distinguish themselves from graduates of any conventional programmes, ” says Prof. Gurukkal.
Even while taking a contrarian view, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University Vice Chancellor Rajasree M.S. said the technical education sector was in dire need of a course correction.
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Dr. Rajasree said many engineering colleges had been pursuing an unsustainable model by catering to the workforce required for the information technology sector. She advocated a shift in focus towards translational research that addressed regional needs.
She also pinned her hope on the internship programme launched by the Higher Education Department to hone the skills of engineering students to enhance their employability by creating a platform for hands-on training.
Pure science
Prof. Gurukkal said the present demand for courses in applied and pure science was not entirely driven by scientific curiosity. The increase in enrolment in institutes of national importance such as the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research could not be necessarily seen as an indicator of academic growth or quality.
“Among those turning towards pure science, roughly 80% do not possess an aptitude towards science. While they manage to scrape through on the basis of superlative memory power and analytical faculty, not many will dedicate their career for high-end research.,” he cautioned.