When engineering degrees become pass

Updated on: Saturday, October 09, 2010

Engineering education has been, is, and will be one of the most required streams of education in this world. Hence the demand for those courses will remain robust as long as mankind exists.

Even the financial powerhouse of the world, the U.S., has renewed efforts to enhance the skills of its engineers.

As opposed to twenty years ago, when the seats and the streams of engineering were limited, today we, in India, especially in the south, have a multitude of engineering streams and a whole lot of seats available.

Earlier there never used to be much of a choice as the engineering colleges were State-owned/ aided, and most of the allotment was centrally done.

The only eagerness was to find out whether an admission would be achieved or not. But today the scenario has changed altogether.

With the arrival of self-financing colleges and the opening up of the education sector, there are lots of seats available. In many places the supply outstrips the demand for the seats.

Status diminished

The status associated with an engineering student has diminished a lot since it is no longer perceived as an ‘elite' course. It is natural that with diminishing exclusivity, and a lot of students opting for engineering courses, the image suffers.

Engineering has more or less given itself an image of a very general course as opposed to the image of a very professional course that it had a couple of decades ago.

With the proliferation of institutions, the variety among them has increased and, it is only natural that there will be a gradation of the institutes.

Time is not far, if it has not happened yet, that just like the B-Schools, the place of study, the college from where engineering is done will assume centre stage, rather than the degree itself.

Engineering education

All this underlines the importance of knowing engineering education, more than having just a peripheral knowledge, to make a good engineer. It starts with self introspection. Answer the question as to why one is doing engineering.

Here the parents also need to get involved because in many cases the parents are the actual decision-makers. They direct the students to join a particular course and a college.

It is very important that there should be a concurrence of ideas of the parents and the students before joining a course.

The answer could be anything but the answer will determine the effort that one should put in to reach the goal.

Earlier enrolling a student in a coaching centre was the only duty of the parent. After that the choices were limited as described before.

Now, it is more or less certain that any candidate with a semblance of responsibility will end up in the rank list and secure a seat in some engineering college. But is that what is required?

Choose wisely

The selection should be able to fulfil one's dreams. The parents and the students need to do much more than just prepare for the entrance exams.

There needs to be more in depth study of what one's aims are and how to fulfil them through this education. We will discuss about how to go about it in the next article.

When engineering degrees become pass

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