There are more bad eggs than good in engineering colleges

By M H Ahssan

“IITians lack quality. IIT aspirants somehow get through the joint entrance examination. But their performance in IITs, at jobs, or when they come for higher education in institutes in the US is not as good as it used to be,” Infosys chief mentor NR Narayana Murty had lamented recently. This holds true for not just IITs (Indian Institute of Technology), but for engineering colleges in general. Over time, the quality of students getting through in engineering colleges has deteriorated.

Academicians opine that the ease with which a candidate is able to get an engineering seat is what is lowering the quality of tech education. “It’s happening across the country. The level of education is coming down,” they said.

With the cut-off percentage set at 45 % for general merit students and 40 % for SC/ST, getting into an engineering college does not require much effort. “The cut- off must be restored to at least 50 %, so that the intake of students is up to the mark. Candidates scoring below this must not be made eligible,” said MR Doreswamy, founder-chairman of PES College.

Of 188 engineering colleges in the state, only 40 are up to the mark, which is basically about 25 % of the colleges, he said.

“There are far too many engineering colleges in the state, because of which there are more seats available. If the number of colleges is restricted, the number of students who can opt for the course will also come down,” said KR Venugopal, principal of University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE).

“In autonomous colleges, even if a student has scored poor marks, they will not fail him, fearing, if they do, their reputation will be at stake. So, after the course, when the candidate gets into a job, he ends up being a poor performer,” he added. Summing up, he said that more number of colleges along with institutions refusing to fail a poor performer has left the level of employability at less than 20 % currently.

Many academicians blame it on the quality of teachers at engineering colleges. “The biggest challenge is getting teachers. These days, a student who has completed his BE securing a first class can teach, without having much knowledge about teaching methodologies and communication skills. More effort should be made in the direction of improving teachers, which will see an improvement in the quality of education,” said Doreswamy.

Venugopal agrees that the poor pay scale for teachers adds to the deterioration in the quality of the staff. “Many colleges do not have enough student strength, because of which teachers are paid a low salary,” he said.

Varun Melanta, director, MVJ College of Engineering, feels that there is only a marginal difference between academics and industry requirements. “If colleges add on internships, it would enhance the quality even further,” he said.