Top Engineering Colleges in India 2010

Into its sixth year, the Dataquest-IDC T-School Survey in 2010 comes up with its annual ranking of the top technology schools in the nation. This is the only survey engineering colleges targeted at employers, not students.The survey per se, included various parameters such as placements, infrastructure, academic environment, and industry interface. Undoubtedly the IITs, premier world famous institutes in India, are ruling the roost. Studying in an IIT is the first thing that every ambitious engineering aspirant can think of in India. Set up under the Institutes of Technology Act 1963, for many years IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, and IIT Roorkee were the seven IITs in India that were termed as National Institutes of Importance. Eventually, for a nation which is so huge in every dimension, the need was felt for some more institutes of high standard technology education.

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The noble thought was put into action and as a result, currently we have 15 IITs in the country, with eight new ones being added over the last two yearsIIT Ropar (2008), IIT Bhubaneswar (2008), IIT Gandhinagar (2008), IIT Hyderabad (2008), IIT Patna (2008), IIT Jodhpur (2008), IIT Mandi (2009) and IIT Indore (2009). In addition, Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal announced this August that the government would soon confer the status of IIT to the Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University (IT-BHU) as the matter has already been approved. The success of the IITs led to the creation of the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT) in the late 1990s and in the 2000s and interestingly, IIIT Hyderabad, set up in 1998 and the youngest among T-School, already finds place in the Top 10 list of Dataquest-IDC T-School Survey. The IIT tales therefore are very inspiring, which is why IITians are so highly regarded, not just in India, but across the globe.

Prestige and the Other Factors

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While there were 29 new entries into the Top 100 T-School list, IIT Bombay led the pack and was adjudged the best Technology School in the country. IIT Delhi grabbed the 2nd rank by pushing down IIT Kharagpur to the 3rd place followed by IIT Madras. Not to be forgotten, IIT Kharagpur was at the top position of the list for the last three successive years. While 6 out of the top 10 ranks were occupied by IITs alone; IIIT Hyderabad, BITS Pilani, NIT Surathkal, and IT-BHU Varanasi took the other 4 places in the list.

 

 

Top universities surely do have their advantages. For example, many of the top ten schools have more funds and thus better research facilities or quality of student life. Since a university is an essential investment for the students future, both students and their parents want to ensure that they are getting the best deal. As per the Dataquest-IDC T-School Survey 2010, the total tuition fees for IIT Bombay is `274,926, and that of BITS Pilani and IIIT Hyderabad are `40,000. While there is no denying that degrees from prestigious universities/colleges certainly carry some weight when it comes to getting better jobs after graduation, many students still look at the total costs they would incur on higher education, including not just tuition but also others such as personal expenditures, textbooks, hostel fees etc. Secondly, location is something that many T-School applicants take for granted. But the fact is that one cannot study hard and well if she/he is unhappy with the surroundings, which include the infrastructure and academic environment of the college. In the Dataquest-IDC T-School Survey 2010, IIT Bombay proved to be not just an overall topper but also excellent in its infrastructure and academic environment as well, followed by IIT Delhi. IIT Kharagpur, on the other hand, trailed the other IITs on the parameter of infrastructure. The impact of its last years medical infrastructure failure causing a third year students death seems to be prevailing still.

Meanwhile, at present 40% of the existing professors at old IITs are eligible to get salary similar to an additional secretary in the central government. However, the new IITs expressed that they have been unable to implement this grade since they dont have enough professors. Due to this ongoing faculty crunch at Indias premier engineering institutes, IITs are mooting a proposal to hire foreign nationals as permanent faculty members. As the IITs expand, the institutes would require around 1200-1500 new well qualified teachers, implying that almost 70 faculty members are needed in one IIT per year. Currently, about a third of faculty positions are lying vacant. This led to a proposal by the IITs to allow foreign nationals as permanent faculty members, as it would help in solving the problem of lack of well qualified teachers.

Changing Trends

Now, trends in the technical education sector have seen a major shift, with students preferring to choose electrical engineering over computer science. The shift of students choices from computer science to electrical engineering can be attributed to the fading appeal of the IT sector. This year, electrical engineering opened at All India Rank (AIR) 1 and closed at rank 98. On the contrary, computer science closed at rank 116. Among the IITs, telecommunications is at an equal position as computer science. And now, electrical engineering is at par with computer science, after which, most students are opting for mechanical engineering. Even though computer science attracted a lot IIT-JEE toppers this year, around 25% of the top 100 rankers opted for electrical engineering even when they could have easily availed a seat in computer science. This trend is already emerging in all IITs. According to the Dataquest-IDC T-School Survey 2010, among the batch of students who passed out in years 2009-10, in IIT Kharagur, maximum (70 out of 570) chose mechanical engineering; in IIT Roorkee, maximum (86 out of 531) chose civil engineering, followed by 82 choosing electrical engineering; and similarly in BITS Pilani, where maximum (133 out of 710) chose electrical engineering over computer science. According to statistics of the opening and closing ranks of candidates admitted into IITs in August 2010, mechanical engineering has been gradually gaining popularity among students.

Reforms Planned

Changes in the pattern of engineering entrance exams had been proposed by the ministry earlier as well. A committee has been formed under IIT Kharagpur director Damodar Acharya which suggested including weightage of the Class XII result and a national level aptitude test for admission in engineering courses. The Acharya committee has already submitted its report and according to Sibal, it was widely agreed that the entrance exam system needs to be changed but it is yet to finalize the modalities. The minister informed in September this year that weightage will be given to class XII exam marks, and these will be based on the performance through the year. This practice will automatically discourage coachings. However, the IITs do not want to do away with the JEE as yet.

In the month of August this year, HRD Minister Sibal said that revamping the countrys education system is his top agenda and it should not be misconceived as political agenda of any political party. Governments education policies would be designed based on the needs of the land for making the system more efficient and pragmatic. Sibal said that 22 State Education Boards have unanimously asked for the country to have a core syllabus in the country. He lamented that just 12.4% students passing the intermediate level are going in for higher studies due to faults in our education policies. The minister said that it is critical at this point of time to open up the education sector for foreign and private players and to bring about quality education. The Dataquest-IDC T-School Survey 2010 revealed that just 77% of the permanent faculty in IIIT Hyderabad and 65% in IIIT Allahabad has a doctoral or PhD degree. Sibal mentioned this September that foreign students and faculty, medical courses and a new pattern for entrance exams are among the reforms planned for Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Earlier this month, after releasing a book Engineering Education in India at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, Sibal said that the universities must make engineering colleges autonomous to boost research in the field. He added, The number of students doing research is far below than the national requirement. The universities must free engineering colleges from the affiliation process. He pointed out that less than 1% of our engineering students were doing research in the field. Take for example, out of 1 mn of such students in the US, 4,700 are doing research. Whereas in India, the figure is 156. Here we are falling short of the national requirement, he said. Sibal stressed on the need for at least 10% of our engineering students getting actively involved in research and reforms in education. The broad analysis of the Dataquest-IDC T-School Survey 2010 also suggests that the average number of research paper submitted in 2009-10 was 182.8, 21% less than that the previous year.

Government Initiatives

As the technical education courses in India are quite diverse, the number of institutes providing technical courses in India is also huge. There are around 1,244 institutes in India that offer diploma courses in engineering, 415 institutes offer diploma courses in pharmacy, 63 institutes offer diploma courses in hotel management and catering technology courses and 25 AICTE approved institutes that offer diploma courses in architecture. The number of AICTE approved institutes that offer Master of Computer Application courses in India is 1012. Given the importance of technical education in the further development of the nation, the Government of India is keen on developing some more institutes in the line of IITs, IIMs, and IISCs. These institutes along with various private institutes and foreign technical colleges have the potential of making technical education accessible to all sections of society in India without compromising on the quality of education.

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Government is undertaking various schemes and initiatives which should lead to the creation of a new India, said President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on October 30, while inaugurating the PanIIT 2010 conclave.

The economic progress of a country is strongly linked with quality education with values. It is therefore, necessary for Indias technical education to undertake periodic review of the curriculum and subject content of the technical programs to ensure that they are up-to-date, not outmoded or obsolete, and effectively fulfill the technological requirements of the country. The Governor Generals policy statement of 1913 stressed on the importance of technical education and since then there has been no looking back. Today, India produces approximately 500,000 technical graduates each year, of which nearly 260,000 are engineering graduates alone.

Conclusion

While it is undeniable that topping the list in Dataquest-IDC T-School Survey means excellence, the survey has always made it evident that it is very important for a T-School that its students fare well on the placement front and its HR perception scores are good; this year, IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur grabbed the top positions in these two fields, respectively. Meanwhile, the average salary among IITs as recorded in the Dataquest-IDC T-School Survey 2010 is `6.3 lakh and that of NITs is `4.1 lakh. Nevertheless, the broad analysis of the survey suggests that while the percentage of students placed this year has risen by 7% in comparison to last year, the average annual salaries registered a drop of 2.3%, from `8.9 lakh in 2009 to `8.7 lakh this year. During the broad analysis survey, a large increase was also seen in the average number of doctorates awarded. It increased from just 34 last year to 75 this year. While excellent infrastructure and academic environment is crucial, the institutes level of industry interface, the number of industry training and internship programs launched, MoUs signed with companies for syllabus modification, joint research papers launched, international affiliation, student exchange programs, etc, all tip the scales in its favor.

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In Benjamin Franklins words, Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. Therefore, whether the placement statistics of T-Schools will improve or the patterns and trends in technical education will actually witness a change, is for us to wait and watch till the T-School Survey happens next year again.

Drishti D Manoah

drishtim@cybermedia.co.in