Students should carefully select engineering colleges

Considering that technology is the religion of modern days, becoming an engineer is a dream of most students. However, of late, the field has lost its charm, thanks to increasing number of engineering colleges, dilution of eligibility criteria, lack of good faculty and hence overall degradation of quality.

Last year, over 7,000 B.Tech. first year seats remained vacant in Nagpur University alone, while the first year result was a poor37.22 percent. From 2007-09, the results hovered around 54 percent before plunging to 38.85 percent in 2010 and 35.47 percent last year.

Engineering education experts and principals attributed the trend to several factors, apart from huge increase in number of colleges. They cited inadequate teachers and principals, lack of proper infrastructural facilities. They warned students to carefully choose institutes before taking the plunge. They also highlighted the kind of caliber and talent required to become a good engineer.

"Approved faculty should be a priority while choosing a college, followed by infrastructure and placements. Laboratory, classrooms and workshops are factors which draw a student's maximum attention towards studies."

Deepak Kulkarni, senior lecturer of Government Polytechnic

Commenting on the poor results, Deepak Kulkarni adds that engineering is an application of science and there is no practical learning till standard XII.

"Logical thinking is not developed and they have learnt to study mechanically. The quality of students in the last 3 years has been extremely poor."

Deepak Kulkarni

Disagreeing with him, Wainganga Engineering College principal Surendra Gole feels that placement is the most misguiding factor.

"Students are placed on their ability and colleges never decide their recruitments. It is erroneous to say that a specific college gives good placements. The competence of the students places them in good companies. Nobody in the 4 years of a student's graduation will ever ask him his name or the college's name or his strea.,"

Surendra Gole, Principal, Wainganga Engineering College

Commenting on poor results, Gole says today every mathematics student wants to become an engineer. "So, an ordinary child may take more than 4 years to become one. His pace is slow and so he takes more time," he adds.

Gaikwad Patil group chairman Mohan Gaikwad believes that it is the interest and dedication of a student which helps him create a niche for himself.

"Self study is must. College is of least importance. Every college has decent infrastructure but faculty is necessary for third and fourth year. First year depends on the child's hard work and self-study. Grooming oneself in all aspects is crucial for desired placements."

Mohan Gaikwad, Chairman, Gaikwad Patil Group

Faculty is of prime importance according to director of Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT) and NU registrar Mahesh Yenkie.

"Analytical skills must be present in order to understand engineering principles. These are only sharpened during graduation. Any inquisitive child will flourish in the science stream."

Mahesh Yenkie, Director of Laxminarayan Institute of Technology

Agreeing with his view, engineering dean Ravindra Kshirsagar says honest, qualified, interested and experienced staff can change the scenario to a great extent. "Institutes having faculty with at least 10 years experience should be chosen. Even reputation of college needs to be considered," he adds.

He blames poor admission criteria for poor results. "Admission into engineering is permissible with just 40% marks now, and so almost anyone can get entry into this stream. Moreover, everyone is not friendly with English language and it's a barrier in scoring good marks. Semester pattern may offer a solution, as the burden reduces," he says.