CRISIS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION. Too many colleges with limited facilities

Engineering colleges that mushroomed over the past decade all over Uttar Pradesh, lined along the State’s highways and elsewhere in small towns and cities, have lost their sheen. Classrooms, now, are only partially filled, with intakes in many colleges dropping to nearly a tenth.

SD Pandey, Director of Kedar Nath Ginni Devi Modi Engineering College, proudly says the college is placed the tenth in the Uttar Pradesh Technical University — now called Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University — out of 630 colleges. Yet, the college appears forlorn with few students and facilities that are a far cry from those enjoyed by students in premier colleges.

Pandey tells us the college earlier admitted about 510 students every year, but has reduced the number of seats to just 360 this year. Unfortunately, it has found it hard to fill even these seats. While the college wasn’t able to give us details of the exact number of students admitted in the previous academic year, Pandey estimated that about half the available seats were filled, or about 150.

One first-year student, however, said the batch had only 65-70 students.

With a substantial annual tuition fee of ₹95,000, along with a hostel fee of ₹65,000 for a year, the colleges are unable to fulfil the aspirations of its students.

One third-year student, who did not wish to be named, said the senior students from his discipline, due to graduate this year, saw poor placements, with just 30-40 per cent being placed with an average monthly salary of just ₹18,000-20,000. “The student who got the best placement has been offered ₹30,000 per month. The situation is not very good. We need jobs, and most of us won’t be able to get jobs in our chosen field,” the student said.

The college, however, refutes these claims and asserts that over 75 per cent of the students have been placed.

Details of the companies that turned up for recruitment from this college, which BusinessLine saw, showed that the average annual salary offered was ₹3-4 lakh, with the lowest bracket standing at a mere ₹1.8 lakh (₹15,000 per month) for the future engineers. No wonder ever fewer students are finding value in such colleges.

One student told us she had decided to look for a job on her own because of her dissatisfaction with the job she was offered through on-campus placements.

Pandey said placements had been good, with on-campus placements covering all the students who wanted to take jobs, leaving aside those who wished to pursue higher studies or seek government jobs. However, a list provided by the college, of the students placed this year, until April 8, named only 53 students out of more than 420.

Pandey said that this year more than 1.24 lakh students appeared for the entrance examination to engineering courses, compared with just 78,000 in the previous year, indicating interest in the University. Yet, his own college appears to be failing to attract students.

Sanjeev Maheshwari, Director of Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology (MIET), is more candid in saying that a number of colleges are failing to attract students.

MIET itself has seen a decrease in the student inflow, from 400 to 150-160, he said, adding that the problem has compounded in smaller colleges.

“We get good students because we give more technical education geared towards the industry. Instead of the industry hiring them and then providing training, we are giving them training here itself, which makes our students more attractive for jobs,” he said. MIET, which has two campuses, placed 1,000 out of the 1,200 students in the previous year. This year, 88 students have been placed in IBM, Maheshwari said. Other colleges and their students, however, are not that fortunate.

“The problem is that permissions have been given to a lot of institutes to reopen, and they are just running like businesses. In Meerut, there are 30-35 colleges, and only 3-4 are getting sufficient students,” he said, adding that several engineering colleges have converted to polytechnic institutes, due to lack of student interest.

“If 150 colleges are required and 600 colleges are running, how can all the colleges do well?”

Several engineering students in are, in fact, looking at other job opportunities, seeing a dip in their prospects. Raghav Sharma, a fourth-year student in MIET, says he wants to take up a government job — whether in the Army or the Railways.

As IT companies appear to have cut down on hiring from these smaller colleges, and with average salaries dropping to ₹20,000 a month, students are beginning to question their decision to become engineers.

Mahesh, a job consultant from Luckow, who works with colleges in smaller towns, said a number of students don’t even get to work as engineers post-college. “Many of them get recruited by call centres, others are working with designations such as ‘business development executive’, which has nothing to do with their training as engineers. Many companies don’t find them to be adequately equipped for the job. The situation is grim for these students,” he said.

Several of these colleges, in fact, conduct weekly personality development classes for students to help with their job prospects. However, the scores of engineering colleges dotting highways of UP, have lost their shine for students.

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