Undergrad Engineering : Some Thoughts

Was reading outlook survey on educational institutes in country and once again4. my Alma Mater IIT KGP topped the list. In the comments section to same article there were some very perceptive comments from one reader

1. Free undergrad courses from control of politicians and bureaucrats and let professional bodies regualte them. This will result in more capacity building and reservations will lose the shine. Take for example engineering. During agitation against OBC reservation medical students were in forefront not the engineering the reason being there so much capacity in engineering education in country today that there are not enough candidates to fill all seats.

2. Another good suggestion was allowing students to transfer from one college to other after every semester with credit and grades. This will create a completion between colleges and students will have option to move to greener postures something which happens uin first week of our term when we are allowed to change subject based on our perception of teacher and course. Each college may be allowed a change of +-20% and thus good colleges charging moderate fee will be in high demand and bad colleges will steadily loose students. Technical universities established in every state will come handy in these

3. Industries should let their middle level managers go to academia to learn new things and similarly accept faculty for part time jobs or sabbatical so that they understand industry in a better way. A concurrent move could be to create a voluntary national database of faculty and industry professionals in which everyone - industry and colleges can dip in and actually bid/auction high performers creating a true market for talent & skills. This might even attract NRI faculties and bring transparency in salaries paid by college to their employees

4. And lastly not all undergrads should be forced to do projects anyways mostly what undergrad do in industry has very rmeote relation with what they learn in colleges and by putting unnecessary burden during undergrad we burn out many potential students. We are not able to get many colleges running up due to anachronistic requirement of facilities which are needed actually for PG research only. Further for clerical level jobs in government requirement of graduation can be done away with to further reduce pressure on out science/arts colleges so that they can be actually converted into research centers.Undergrad students could be allowed to take course instead of projects rather than copying or buying projects from commercial supplier. this will also insure better focus of facilities and faculty time also.