Engineering quality education

Many Central Government studies have uniformly shown up the rather poor quality of our engineering education as a whole. The very ‘employability’ of the bulk of our engineering graduates is in question today.

The only exception to this are the IITs and other centrally administered institutions such as the NITs, IIITs. These , however, together produce only about 1 per cent of our engineers, while over 95 per cent of them come from the State-level institutions -- largely from private colleges affiliated to State universities.

How have the different players on the scene responded to the crisis? The industry, the private managements or the State governments have done pretty little to enhance quality of our engineering education. It is only the Central government that has been taking some initiatives to address the quality issue – by pumping more funds into the existing IITs and NITs; starting more IITs, NITs , IIITs, ISERs, Central Universities.

The thinking seems to be that ‘quality’ would first be created in the central institutions like the IITs, as well as perhaps in a few private universities, which would then “trickle down” to the other layers below.

No trickle down

Even if one assumes that the trickle-down formulation works to the script, it is too little and too late to address the demands of the times.

First, the numbers – we have about 3,000 engineering colleges in the country with about 2 lakh teachers and about 35 lakh students on the rolls. As such, the existence of some 50-odd high quality central institutions is highly unlikely to impact on the overall quality scene.

Second, the centrally controlled institutions are pretty much a closed system, with very little links with the larger state system. Even if quality is created in the former, little of it percolates to the latter.

Finally, and more fundamentally, in the era of the Net and the Web, all have equal access to the latest in the world's knowledge pool.

One does not any more have to wait for the IITs to first gain access to the latest from their contacts in the West, and then wait for it to trickle down to the rest in the country – no 'middlemen' are needed any more in the flow of knowledge.

In short, the huge State university system need not have to wait for quality to trickle down to them– the State system can and should address the issue of quality in engineering education on their own, but very much in partnership with the Centre which has most of the resources.

Looking beyond

Raising the quality of engineering education in the country in significant ways, beyond just tokenism, can indeed be attempted if two conditions are accepted by the parties concerned:

Central Government has to accept that its responsibility in the matter is to the entire nation, and not limited to some handful of its own institutions catering to a tiny elite;

State governments have to accept that they too have deep stakes in raising quality in their institutions and should be ready to partner with the Centre in the matter.

The Centre has to change the attitude that they will fund only those institutions whom they control; they have to extend adequate and sustained funding to well performing state level institutions in partnership with the State authorities.

There must be at least 50 of them today in the country that can be selected immediately through a dialogue with the States, and without changing their present ownership structure. Attempting to bring 50-odd State-level institutions to the “ IIT Class” with in the next five years would be more cost-effective and sustainable in the long term compared to starting new IITs.

The scope and scale of this could be expanded subsequently depending on how well the States are able to use the scheme to enhance quality. Also, a quality institution in the State system would have an impact on the larger system than what a Central institution would have.

BIAS AGAINST STATES

We need to get rid of the misconception that quality can only be maintained by central government institutions, and States can only bring up the numbers.

For one thing, this has not been the case the world over, even in the US, where the world famous universities have been created, monitored and regulated by the State governments – there are no Federal Universities in the US.

Till 30-40 years ago, it was the State universities and colleges that represented quality in most fields -- Guindy Engineering college in Chennai, VJTI in Mumbai, Bengal Engineering College in Kolkata, and Roorkee Engineering college in Uttar Pradesh were the leaders. Clearly, this situation can be recreated and excellence nurtured within the State system, if a new deal is put in place between the Centre and the states

A new deal

The time has come for a 'new deal' between the Centre and the States in this field.

The Centre is already stretched in its efforts at setting up and managing more and more engineering institutions on its own; this process obviously has its limits.

It should not, therefore, proceed any further with this model; its role should be redefined and restricted to one of enabling, supporting and funding the State systems to create quality.

Many States today can command the academic, intellectual and administrative expertise, as well as the passion and the energies (including those of their diaspora), to take major responsibilities in this sphere and thereby lighten the burden on the Centre. Many States would be right away ready to share the burden if they are taken as partners in the process.

To start with, there is no need to insist on uniformity across all the States in the matter; those States who want to and who are ready for such a deal should be firstly engaged with in this process, and the rest can join as and when they are ready.

Such a recasting of roles of the Centre and the States has today become a possibility, as well as a necessity.

(The author is a retired professor of engineering associated with a private R&D organisation.)

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