Dear Students,
LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think conventional engineering courses are back in demand despite new varied courses being introduced by colleges?
BEST RESPONSE
When engineering colleges are growing like mushrooms all over the country, those who aspire to become an engineer have now developed the notion of being different. This can be achieved when one goes for the range of new varied engineering courses being offered by colleges or to go for value addition while pursuing traditional engineering courses. Limited seats in government institutions, foreign institution tie ups and designing of curriculum according to the industry have attracted various students to pursue non-traditional engineering courses but due to visible relationship with studied intermediate curriculum one prefers to pursue conventional engineering courses.
-- Girish Changulani, Jhunjhunwala Business School, Faizabad.
OTHER RESPONSES:
Market changes rapidly, hence new needs are arrive and new and fancy courses are introduced by colleges. But despite innovation, basics remain important. Innovation built over weak basics are not going to last for much time. So yes conventional engineering courses are back in demand as the market feels that they are distinct from the roots in the need of innovation.
-- Jimit Parikh, St Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.
Conventional engineering courses are perennially fruitful. Surge in new areas of research and few market somersaults have incentivised engineering colleges to introduce new courses in their curriculum. The conventional courses were perceived to be marginally out of touch for a short while. However given the sheer number of jobs that these conventional sectors offer, it is difficult to imagine these wells drying anytime soon. New engineering courses are important for the ever changing and advancing world but displacing conventional courses would be a tall order. The demographic dividend in India will ensure both fields attracting handsome numbers in coming years.
-- Kunal Singh, IIT Kharagpur.
New varied courses are dynamic and needs constant updating of skills. Basic engineering courses however are foundations on which skills if acquired are more resistant to obsolescence. Engineering is the preferred Under graduate course; if you intend to do an MBA or MS. The recruiting companies specially the IT and ITES too prefer people with engineering background; as this is an academically rigorous course and thus churns out better workers and innovators .hence engineering is back in demand.
-- Glorin Sebastian, Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship (XIME), Bangalore.
In the wake of increased recruitment by PSUs like ONGC, NTPC, IOCL etc, the conventional engineering courses are back in demand. These conventional courses have seen steady recruitment over the years and now when there are recessionary sentiments in virtually every industry, students opting for these conventional courses is only obvious. But John Kenneth once rightly said, "The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking". Therefore the need of the hour is Interdisciplinary Learning in which knowledge, skills and behaviour cross discipline boundaries to give the students a holistic view of various disciplines.
-- Neeraj Gupta, Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship (XIME), Bangalore.
Conventional engineering courses can be attributed to the fact that these courses offer huge opportunities in terms of employment. In view of the increasing competition in the job market and to score an edge over others, the students have increasingly been joining private institutions or opting these courses. Apart from learning Technical skills,there are a number of social factors involved as well like the aspirations of students, which have undergone a tremendous change. Also introduction of multi-disciplinary subjects, effective research-related courses and others can be looked upon to improve the conventional engineering courses.
-- Pratik Bairagi, Regional College of Management, Bhubaneswar.
The only reason why conventional engineering courses are in demand is due to its backing by the university which offers such affiliated courses. In the past, it has been many a times reported that colleges introduce many specialized courses for students, but they are not recognized beyond the four walls of the colleges. Students suffer a lot since they have to pay a huge amount given these courses are self aided ones. They also do not get any job as corporates do not recognize such degrees, only reputed colleges students are able to secure a placements from such courses.
-- Bhushan Orpe, Fr. C. Rodrigues Institute of Management Studies, Vashi.
A career in engineering has always been popular choices with students who excel in subjects such as mathematics and physics etc. The conventional engineering have regular demand despite addition of new courses. The more conventional streams of civil, mechanical and electrical engineering among others continue to attract students by the hordes every year.
-- Arjun Malkar, Fr. C Rodrigues Institute Of Management Studies, Vashi.
Conventional engineering courses like mechanical, electrical, civil will remain relevant as they are evergreen courses. Moreover, since most of the new courses being introduced today are derived from or are branch of the conventional engineering courses namely electronics from electrical, metallurgy from mechanical, these conventional courses were always in demand. But in coeval world due to great thrust to development viz. infrastructure, power, industry; their demand has soot up. So, like basic industry of steel, power these conventional courses are basic course without which no foundation can be laid, hence they will always remain in demand.
-- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.
Despite varied courses being introduced, few engineering courses such as electronics and communications, mechanical engineering, computer and IT have always been in demand as is evident from the number of engineering colleges specifically offering the popular courses. People perceive that there is demand in the job market for professionals such as engineers and hence the demand for the conventional engineering courses. There are more than 3000 engineering colleges in India. However, this year there were reports of some engineering colleges in south India which had applied for closure due to the dwindling demand from students.
-- Aparna Nagarajan, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore.
Conventional courses enable knowledge, attitudinal and skill objectives to be addressed simultaneously to students. However, now in engineering streams, an individual chooses the course which deals with the design, creation and operation of machines related to flying planes, missiles, space-crafts, aerodynamics, avionics, propulsion, and acoustics. These are subjects that are taught under the digitisation of course and have grown in popularity.
-- Prasenjit Ghosh, Unitedworld School of Business, Ahmedabad.
Students are increasingly selecting the conventional engineering courses as they bring with them progressively more opportunities and a prudent career path. The industry too, in the recent past, has been offering voluminous jobs and a higher trajectory growth for the conventional courses. Moreover, the infrastructure and resources offered by Indian colleges for the new and varied courses is inadequate for its adoption, and the job opportunities for these courses remain minimally low in number.
-- Akshay Chadha, NSIT, Delhi.
In the past, the youth were interested in government jobs. Now with the changing times, students are more interested in the banking and other private jobs. However, the dwindling economy has shook the private job scenario. Moreover, by 2015, a huge number of government employees are set to retire. Due to this, all the conventional courses are back to in the demand and people are increasingly interested in government jobs again.
-- Gunjan Talsania, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.
Change is the rule of nature but basics will always remain the same. The varied courses introduced by the college are in accordance with the market demand by the corporate and due to these; the students are more interested towards varied courses which fetch them huge packages. Due to the shift in the courses from conventional to varied, the corporate are facing scarcity of manpower of conventional engineers. Thus, the cycle had now again started shift from varied to engineers.
-- Harsh Mehta, St Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad.
It was because of the IT boom in 2000 that many students preferred to go for new engineering courses like computer science, IT, etc. wherein old engineering courses like civil , mechanical lost the glitter. It ultimately created shortage of manpower in these sectors. But nowadays when GDP of country is increasing at 5-7 per cent annually, core industry such as construction industry also goes up. So again conventional engineering courses are back in demand.
-- Saurabh Shroff, Alkesh Dinesh Modi Institute of Financial Management.
Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.
THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: With the number of technical institutes unapproved by AICTE increasing day-by-day, do you think the government should ensure stricter action against them like closure notice against non-compliance?
