Archive for the ‘Engineering Colleges’ Category
Engineering colleges in Karnataka offer freebies to attract students
The college campus wears a somewhat deserted look even during lunch hours. The classrooms are half empty. In one of the classrooms, a teacher stands at the front presiding over a bunch of unusually quiet students. Once in a while, students raise their hands to ask questions, breaking the monotony. This scene from an engineering college on Bangalore’s outskirts can be replicated and applied to many of the hundreds of engineering colleges across Karnataka that are scrambling to fill vacant classroom seats and in their struggle for survival are resorting to tactics never used before—offering freebies such as discounted fees, more scholarships and free hostel to attract students.
Placement heads and principals of a number of engineering colleges conceded the magnitude of the problem and the desperate tactics being undertaken, with students choosing to stay away from these institutes disheartened by the prospect of not landing a job in the country’s $108-billion information technology (IT) sector after graduation.
India trains 1.5 million engineers every year, according to an April research report by Kotak Institutional Equities. But only about 150,000 of them will get jobs in the IT sector this fiscal year, industry lobby Nasscom has estimated.
“The admission figures are very poor. We couldn’t even get 50% of the total intake enrolled (this year),” said M. Uma Devi, Principal of Achutha Institute of Technology, located in Karnataka’s Chickballapur district. “CET (Common Entrance Test, the engineering entrance test held in Karnataka) seems to hold no value now.” She said Achutha had taken a number of steps, such as scholarships, flexible fee structures and discounted admission fees, to attract more students. The college has reduced its fees to Rs. 20,000 per semester for each course, compared with close to Rs. 40,000 last year.
Like Achutha, hundreds of engineering colleges across Karnataka, mostly the smaller and lesser-known colleges, are offering a number freebies and concessions to students, including more scholarships, free hostel accommodation, discounts and free use of library and other additional facilities, according to dozens of college officials, students and experts tracking the sector.
According to a July report in The Hindu newspaper, nearly 80,000 out of about 200,000 engineering college seats are vacant in Tamil Nadu. In Andhra Pradesh, which has the most number of engineering colleges in South India, the figure is even higher at over 100,000 seats, while Karnataka has around 20,000 vacant engineering seats, according to people directly familiar with the development, who requested anonymity. State-level engineering admission authorities in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka could not be reached immediately to confirm these figures.
“The problem we face is that the big IT companies don’t look at the II or III tier colleges for placements—they only look at the top colleges,” said Vandana Yadav, Placement Director at SCT Institute of Technology in Bangalore, which has an average intake of 60-70% of their total capacity in each batch. “And that can be demoralising for students at a college like ours.” SCT has extended benefits such as free books, free access to the college’s digital library and reduced hostel fees, Yadav said. “I don’t think such steps will help majorly. Given the slowdown in the job market, how will it make a difference?” said an 18-year-old first-year aeronautics student at SCT who did not want to be named.
The plight faced by most of these colleges is symptomatic of a larger and deeper crisis facing the country’s engineering populace—lower hiring in the face of lower demand for the country’s top technology firms, which over the years built large, plush campuses to house and train the hundreds of engineering graduates they mass-recruited from colleges across the country. Last month, Nasscom said it expected IT hiring this year to drop by up to 17% to 150,000, mainly due to an increased push towards automation and lower attrition in the sector. In 2008, the Indian IT sector hired 341,000 freshers, according to Nasscom.
“India faces a unique situation where some institutes (IITs, IIMs, etc) are intensely contested, while a large number of recently opened institutes struggle to fill seats,” said analysts Akhilesh Tilotia and Kawaljeet Saluja of Kotak Institutional Equities in their April report. “Across India less than four-fifths of the capacity is used and this spare capacity is unevenly distributed. It is not surprising that over the last couple of years, anecdotes and instances of ‘capitation fees’ at engineering colleges are not heard as much as they were earlier.” According to figures and estimates provided by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Kotak, on an average barely 78% of the 1.5 million engineering seats across the country are filled.
GSS Institute of Technology in Bangalore, too, is handing out discounts to students, said a student who did not want to be named as he didn’t want to upset the college authorities. GSSIT’s Principal Vidyashankar B.V. initially said the college extended discounts and scholarships only to students from poor backgrounds, but eventually conceded that the move was also aimed at filling up college seats.
Other second-rung engineering colleges that are struggling with huge vacancies include Nadgir Institute of Engineering and Technology, Islamiah Institute of Technology, and Bangalore Technological Institute, according to students and people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity. These and another half a dozen colleges contacted for this article conceded that they were operating classes with a strength of 50-60%, but declined to comment on whether they were offering discounts to students. H.S. Nanda, Principal of Bangalore Technological Institute, declined to comment on whether the college had offered discounts to students who were admitted this year, saying that “the management will take that decision”.
“What’s happening now is that the moment you get an engineering seat you negotiate on the fee—that is happening now. Many colleges have started handing out 20-30% discounts or they’ll give you one full year of hostel free,” said Vivek Kulkarni, former IT secretary in the Karnataka government, and founder of Brickwork India, a credit rating agency. “And this has been happening a lot in the newer colleges that have come up.”
According to experts tracking the sector, none of the engineering colleges outside the rank of the top 40 in Karnataka are running at full capacity and hence are being forced to extend freebies to students. “In Andhra (Pradesh), this has been a phenomena for the last 2-3 years or so—in Karnataka, this has become rampant this year,” said Amit Bansal, Founder and Chief Executive of PurpleLeap, which offers training programmes at engineering institutes to improve the quality of education. “Significant discounts on first year fees is a very common tool that is being used—if you look at these colleges, at 50% intake, they’re breaking even— not losing money. If you start falling below that number, you go into the red.”
“Also, getting additional seats from AICTE has become much easier for colleges—so every college has gone ahead and increased their capacity,” added Bansal of PurpleLeap, which has conducted a study at more than 200 engineering colleges across Karnataka to assess the quality of education and employability of the students.
On top of that, freshers’ salaries at top Indian IT firms have remained stagnant the past 4-5 years and not kept pace with the increase in fees charged by engineering colleges. “It’s not surprising to see this happen now—there’s a complete mismatch between the kind of fees the colleges charge and the kind of job opportunities that are available right now. It’s just not sustainable,” said Narendar Pani, Professor at the School of Social Sciences at the National Institute of Advanced Studies.
Source: Mint, September 17, 2013
Traditional engineering courses rule the roost in an evolving world
Early this month, when counselling at the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) in Tamil Nadu began, merely four students opted for the institute’s civil engineering course. This was at a time when the institute had about 200 seats on offer. Computer science engineering was the preferred choice, followed by mechanical and electronics & communication engineering courses.
“This is only a case in particular. While in the initial one or two days, a course may not be opted for by students, all seats in civil engineering would be filled by the end of the counselling session,” said the admissions director of a Chennai-based university, on condition of anonymity.
Traditionally, civil and mechanical engineering courses have been the building blocks of engineering in India. While institutes have introduced new areas such as aeronautics, biomedical and automotive engineering, traditional courses continue to attract students. “With a slowdown in the general information technology/information technology-enabled services sectors and an economic slowdown, it is time for consolidation and back to basics,” says Shankar S Mantha, Chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the country’s technical education regulator. He added today, the trend was to return to core engineering branches such as the civil, electrical and mechanical streams.
AICTE data say, as of 2012, there were 210 engineering streams. These could be grouped into 15 major groups such as mechanical and allied, electrical and allied, computers and allied, chemical and allied, etc.
Mantha said the demand for traditional courses was due to the versatility of these courses and the inherent capability most of these courses had to provide employment and create entrepreneurial avenues.
Devang Khakhar, Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay, agreed. “Due to the fact that job prospects in these traditional areas are now stronger, courses such as mechanical and civil engineering have again become popular in the engineering segment,” he says.
In 2012-13, there were 1.7 million engineering seats at the entry level across 3,820 colleges and 126 engineering institutes. In the last five years, the number of engineering and management seats has nearly doubled.
Human resource (HR) experts say while Indian institutes have tried to offer specialised engineering courses in areas such as automation and information technology, demand for traditional courses would never fade. “Mechanical and civil engineering are the bread and butter of engineering. While demand for niche courses may come and go, that for traditional engineering subjects wouldn’t disappear. Some students may take up new courses, considering the pay packages. But this doesn’t mean traditional subjects have less demand,” says a Mumbai-based HR consultant.
Narayanan Ramaswamy, national head (education) at KPMG, says now, the trend is to offer blended courses, with stronger fundamentals. “The courses are the same, but they are run in a different way. For example, now, a student prefers to do a course in mechanical engineering and join fields such as ‘mechatronics’, rather than specialising in this niche field,” he says.
With headhunters still positive on the segment and the process of counselling set to continue for the next two months, VIT and its likes can be hopeful.
Source: Business Standard, May 30, 2013
225 B-schools, 52 engineering colleges close in 2 years
When the sun of the new millennium came up, shining on the aspirations of a young India, it marked the golden age for professional education. In the early part of the last decade, hundreds of new institutes came up and thousands of aspirants queued up to join them. That was a time when the country added up to 100,000 seats to its professional colleges every year.
A decade later, the picture is one of stark contrast in technical professional colleges: Since 2011, 225 B-schools and over 50 engineering colleges across India have downed shutters. Many more colleges have trimmed programmes, branches of engineering or streams in the management course. On the academic floor, the Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme was once supreme. Arrogantly and unambiguously, it became the final sign-off to schooling, attracting not only those interested in business but also those who wanted to master the tools of management.
Now, for the first time, overall growth of MBA education is negative in the books of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). In 2011-12, 146 new B-schools came up and 124 that were already running closed down. This year so far, 101 management colleges have closed down, only 82 have started. Similar is the story with the Master of Computer Application (MCA) course — 84 colleges stopped offering the programme this year; only 27 started MCA courses.
For students who choose not to apply to an MCA college, the decision is a no-brainer: with many more engineering seats available now, an undergraduate would rather earn a BTech degree followed by a two-year master’s than enrol for a bachelor’s in computer application and back it up with a three-year MCA that would also eat up six years.
Alive to the problem, the AICTE has decided to allow colleges to offer a five-year dual degree programme and also permit graduates of science, BSc (Computer Science) and BSc (Information Technology) to jump to the second year of the MCA course. Yet, the small positive growth in the sector is from the engineering colleges where new institutes are coming up faster than closures taking place, largely in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan.
AICTE Chairman S S Mantha said: “This is a turning phase for the professional education sector. Colleges in remote India and institutes of poor quality are not getting students. And for colleges, there is just one key to attracting students: institutes need to be top-of-the-line colleges. There is no payoff in running a bad college.”
Joining a professional college was once the pinnacle of an Indian student’s career for the seats were far outnumbered by aspirants. So students often happily chose anonymous professional colleges. But over time, they were put off by any of three reasons: poor quality of teaching, lack of adequate faculty or no job offer at the end. “A young graduate would rather take up a job or prepare harder for another shot at an entrance exam which is the gateway to a better college,” said a Director of one of the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).
The problem is also linked to the slowdown, said Samir Barua, Director, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). The job market has been tight for a couple of years. Earlier, many would give up a job to get an MBA and then re-enter the job market after pumping up their CV. “They are hesitant to take such a risk now. The pressure is being felt and applications for MBA are falling. But undergraduate programmes like engineering would not feel the same tension as everyone still at least wants their first college degree,” explained Barua.
Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), October 8, 2012
AICTE may bar new engineering, management colleges from 2014
With supply outstripping demand for engineering and management seats, the country may stop new professional colleges coming up from 2014. This firm stand was taken recently at a meeting of the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the country’s inspector which grants permission to new professional technical colleges. The decision follows requests from several states that want the Council to reject fresh proposals for more colleges.
While many states wanted the AICTE to immediately stop accepting applications, the process of setting up a college, like buying land and building the infrastructure, starts two years before a college trust approaches the AICTE for permission. “So, we have decided that two years from now, we will review the situation and may stop accepting proposals for all new technical colleges,” said AICTE Chairman S S Mantha.
States such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra told the AICTE to not to clear proposals for new institutes after waking up to the fact that the number of vacant seats in engineering and management colleges has risen dramatically over the last three years. India is now home to 3,393 engineering colleges that have 1.486 million seats; today there are 3,900 management schools with a total student intake of 350,000. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh have about 70% tech institutes. When admissions closed last year, AICTE estimated that nearly 300,000 seats were unfilled.
Despite the AICTE’s decision, many states have decided not to allow colleges to start this year, with the state governments and the council embarking on a collision course. This year, the AICTE received a total of 204 applications for new engineering institutes and 86 for MBA colleges. “This year, we saw an interest in colleges again wanting to invest in engineering education. However, applications from the southern states, which have witnessed the expansion, are down to a trickle,” added Mantha. Andhra Pradesh, which has the largest number of engineering colleges in India, has dispatched merely eight applications this year and a similar number for starting MBA colleges.
However, over time, with no plan, growth has been skewed, but if AICTE’s optimism is anything to go by, the country will now see professional colleges springing up in areas like the north-east and in central India, which are yet suffering from low enrolment in the professional education sector.
However, overall the slowdown is perceptible: two years ago, the AICTE received 2,176 applications to start new professional degree colleges and this time around, the number stands at a paltry 362. And two years from now, there may be no new colleges that will come up.
Source: The Times of India, February 28, 2012
No more engineering colleges, states tell AICTE
Two decades ago, just a percentage of aspiring Indian engineers found a seat in a tech school. Now, supply seems to have outstripped demand, with hundreds of thousands of engineering seats in Indian colleges going abegging. State governments now want the country’s regulatory body to reject fresh proposals for starting any more engineering colleges.
“We have received letters from the Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Chhattisgarh governments telling us not to clear proposals for engineering institutes,” said S.S. Mantha, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the umbrella body for professional education in the country. Maharashtra, too, said sources, is firming up its pitch to AICTE after waking up to the fact that the number of vacant seats in engineering colleges has risen dramatically over the last three years.
AICTE records show that India produced 401,000 engineers in 2003-04, of which 35% were computer engineers. In 2004-05, 1,355 engineering colleges admitted 460,000 students, of which 31% were computer engineers. The number of graduates rose to 520,000 in 2005-06. In five years, the capacity in technology colleges has more than trebled.
India is now home to 3,393 engineering colleges that have 1.48 million seats available. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh have about 70% tech institutes. When admissions closed this year, AICTE estimated that nearly 200,000 seats were unfilled.
This glut in engineering seats has had experts worried. This year, AICTE relaxed entry norms for tech schools, hoping there would be a rush of students. But despite lowering the minimum score required to join an engineering college, there weren’t enough students to fill all seats on offer.
“Seats are going vacant in rural parts of various states. There are no takers for specific engineering programmes, but the core engineering courses of civil, mechanical and electrical still have takers,” Mantha added. AICTE has told state governments to pass on copies of perspective plans of all universities, so that the growth of colleges can be mapped and controlled.
Source: The Times of India, October 31, 2011
BlackBerry maker knocks on engineering colleges’ doors for apps
BlackBerry, which is considered to be the phone of the businessmen and professionals, seems to have set its eyes on the youth. While launching models to attract them, the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM) has begun an initiative to keep the youth engaged in developing apps (applications) for the BlackBerry community across the world.
The company has decided to tap the engineering students in India to strengthen the developer ecosystem. “We have already 2,000 applications specially developed for Indian market by local developers. There are over 26,000 developers in India,” Ms. Annie Mathew, Head (Alliances and Developer Relations) of RIM India, said.
Addressing a press conference, she said the company had launched a pilot in Tamil Nadu where in engineering students from 10 universities were invited to take part in the BlackBerry Summit. “They will be given relevant tools to develop Apps. They will get prizes at the end of the competition,” she said.
The company, which covers 625 telecom networks across the world, saw no act of sabotage in disruption of services that had kept millions of users out of the Web for a few days. The firm was getting to ready spend a fortune on the applications that it was going to offer for free for its users beginning Wednesday night.
The $100 candy of applications was aimed at pacifying the outraged users across the world. The BlackBerry users were getting messages from the firm about the freebie. People could choose from a bouquet of applications drawn from various segments of utility. When asked what could be the financial impact of the outage, RIM representatives said that they were yet to estimate that. “But we will have to pay to developers of the apps that we are giving free of cost,” they said.
Source: The Hindu Business Line, October 20, 2011
AICTE told to consult States with surplus seats before sanctioning engineering colleges
The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has asked the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) — the apex regulatory body for engineering colleges — to consult the States before giving permission for setting up new colleges.
According to Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, the AICTE would ask the State governments with a surplus of vacant seats whether recognition should be given to more engineering colleges in their State. He said this while addressing Members of Parliament at a meeting of the Parliamentary consultative committee.
Inter-region variations
This move is to address the wide inter-State and inter-region variations, particularly the location of engineering schools. While some States, particularly the southern States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and Maharashtra in the west have surplus seats, States in the eastern and North-Eastern region are underserved.
Over 70 per cent of the capacity in degree-level engineering education is concentrated in four States — Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The States in the past have protested against the lack of a consultation process while sanctioning new engineering and management colleges.
One area of concern common to many Members of Parliament was that the envisaged expansion of higher education should not result in a heightened rural/urban and rich/poor divide as also a divide among those who can speak English and those who cannot.
Poor student-teacher ratio
The members also said that until the standard of the secondary and higher secondary education sector, especially in government schools, was not improved the poorer sections would not be adequately prepared for good quality higher education.
Another concern was over the poor teacher-student ratio in colleges and declining standards of college education. A suggestion was made by some Members of Parliaments that the Centre should set up a Centrally-run college in every district of the country in the manner of Kendriya Vidyalayas or Navodaya Vidyalayas.
Common entrance test
The committee also discussed the proposed common entrance test for engineering students. At its recent meeting, the IIT Council agreed to the idea of a common admission test for all engineering schools from 2013, if States agreed to the idea. Admissions would take place on the basis of an all-India merit list, which will be prepared based on the combined weightage given to class XII exam and the common test.
The test will examine a student’s logic and non-subject matters. Weightage would be given to the marks obtained in class XII boards after the results are equalised for which Indian Statistical Institute will put in place a mathematical formula for equalisation.
The Indian Statistical Institute’s formula would be based on the data of various boards collected over the past four years to make it an efficient equalisation model.
Source: The Hindu, October 1, 2011
IITs gear up for a bright start to placements; first-time hirers queue up
India Inc. may well be treading with caution on hiring this year, but on the campuses of India’s premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), there is an air of optimism around final placements. Registrations at IIT-Bombay, Delhi and Madras outshine or maintain last year’s numbers, and first-time hirers are pouring in for placements, scheduled in December. “Companies are upbeat and there is no reason hiring will stop; in fact it may even increase,” says Kushal Sen, Placement Head, IIT-Delhi. Over 150 companies have registered with IIT Delhi as of September 22.
A similar number of firms had registered last year. IIT Madras currently has 100 firms registered in their placement portal compared with last year’s 60, says Ramesh Babu, Placement Head. Foreign companies such as Japan’s NTT Communications and Infoaxe from the US, have registered for the first time this year. Among the Indian first-timers are FMC Technologies , Broadcom India, MN Dastur, eGain, Essex Lake Group and Tribi Systems. NIIT University wants to hire PhD students, says Babu. Finisar from Malaysia, which hired last year, has confirmed this year as well.
Singapore’s Sumitomo has been visiting the campus since 2009 and has also registered this year. Company profiles reveal that global salaries can go up to as much as $60,000, says Babu. R&D and engineering firm King Abdullaziz from Saudi Arabia, which had hired students for 96,000 Saudi riyals last year, is yet to register, but the institute is hopeful. At IIT-Bombay, 100 companies had registered till August, and by December, the institute expects to cross last year’s 250-mark.
Ravi Sinha, Placement Head, did not divulge the names of the companies, but expects firms from Japan, Korea, North America and few European nations. Work Applications, a Japanese enterprise resource management firm, has approached IIT-Bombay for the first time, says Sinha. Companies that are interested in hiring students from the IITs expected to get the requisite approvals from the placement committee and then sign into the placement portals. They have to mention the job profile, location and salary, based on which students can decide which firm’s interview to take.
All those who register do not necessarily come for the placements , which last till June. Not just the IITs, but Kolkata-based Jadavpur University too has its share of first-timers – Tokyo-headquartered IT firm Job Tessio and Abu Dhabi’s iron and steel firm Al Ghurair Group are in the process of selecting students. The Japanese firm is expected to offer Rs. 3.1 million per year while the latter will take care of accommodation, food and travel expenses of its employees, besides paying a salary of Rs. 360,000, according to Siddharth Bhattacharya, officer of placement and training.
Source: The Economic Times, September 27, 2011
Private engineering colleges mull 15-30% fee hike
Less than 10 days after the council of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) announced a four-fold increase in fees, private engineering colleges are mulling a hike of 15 to 30 per cent. Kolkata-based Institute of Engineering Management (IEM), for instance, has plans to hike fees from the current Rs. 70,000 to Rs. 110,000 yearly.
He says most other private engineering colleges in the state are soon likely to follow suit. “We will approach the state government for up to a 40 per cent increase in fees once the plans for hiking the fees in the IITs are finalised,” adds Chatterjee.
The story is similar at Bangalore’s RV College of Engineering, one of the better known engineering institutions. Its trust is planning a fee hike from the current Rs. 75,000 to Rs. 125,000 per student per year. “Currently,” says principal B S Satyanarayana, “45 per cent of the students pay up to Rs. 30,000, 5 per cent pay no fees and 50 per cent pay about Rs. 75,000. We are going to ask the higher band to be increased to Rs. 125,000 from the next session.”
Over 60 private engineering colleges in the western state have been demanding a hike in fees for more than a year now, citing issues of increasing expenditure and need to expand. The move to hike the fees in IITs is expected to give more teeth to the demand. But the fee hike, when implemented, is likely to have to a stronger impact given that while the all 15 IITs put together have about 10,000 seats, private engineering colleges have over 500,000 seats across more than 2,200 institutions.
That fees hike in private engineering colleges is a contentious issue is well documented. The Karnataka government had set up the B. Padmaraj Committee to recommend the formula for fee hike in Karnataka. The state, incidentally, is the second largest producer of engineers in India and has over 100,000 seats across 200 institutions.
“The approved student teacher ratio set by the AICTE [All India Council of Technical Research] is 15/1,” points out Satyanarayana. “The target ratio set by the IITs, is 10/1. For private engineering colleges to achieve the IIT target ratio, the annual fees should at least by Rs. 125,000 yearly.”
Another director, of a leading engineering college in Bangalore, says increasing the fees has become a matter of compulsion, following the order to implement the Sixth Paying Commission salaries. According to current rules, private engineering colleges can hike fees subject to the state government’s approval. However, according to industry experts, there are ways to work around the rules, given the fact that fees figures as reflected on balance sheets are often augmented by research and infrastructure expenses among others.
“If one talks about just expenditures,” reveals Ajay Antony, Director, IIT JEE and AIEEE, at TIME Institute, “a student at a private engineering college spends up to 30,000 more yearly by way of expenses as compared to an IIT. Just 40 per cent of the overall expense incurred by the student goes toward fees. Nevertheless more hike will inevitably follow.”
Source: Business Standard, September 27, 2011
Why Tamil Nadu has 45,000 engineering seats empty
The existence of a large number of engineering colleges is one of the major reasons why the IT industry chooses Tamil Nadu as a preferred destination. The colleges churn out the required manpower in hordes, which the industry laps up for its own growth and expansion. But this year, engineering institutions have faced a major shock. A whopping 45,000 seats out of the 149,000 available seats have fallen vacant in the 2011 admissions to the 577 engineering colleges in the state.
To explain this situation, Anna University Vice-Chancellor P. Mannar Jawahar cites the increasing trend of IT companies going to arts and science colleges for campus hiring. At the same time, education activists are demanding an embargo on the setting up of new engineering colleges by AICTE and the implementation of measures to regulate college fees, plus improve infrastructure, quality and manpower in the engineering education sector.
“IT companies have tasted success by hiring brilliant BSc and MSc IT, maths, physics and chemistry graduates delivering goods at par with BE. A typical BE fresher expects a salary of Rs. 25,000 against the more modest expectations of BSc and MSc pass-outs who settle for a salary of Rs. 15,000,” says Jawahar. Anna is the nodal university of the Tamil Nadu government that conducts entrance exams for the 577 affiliate colleges coming under its umbrella.
Till last year, engineering education was considered to be the only passport to land jobs in IT. Despite the cost of technical education, the salary levels made many middle class and lower middle families educate their children in engineering colleges that got them a high-paying IT job.
“IT industry looks at engineers for their math proficiency, a much-needed skill in analysing problems and conceiving algorithms to solve various IT automation projects. By virtue of their discipline, engineers are sought after for technical grasping ability which cannot be expected of arts and science graduates,” says R Chandrasekaran, president and managing director of Cognizant Technology.
But Deepali Singh, business head of firstnaukri.com (a subsidiary of the job portal naukri.com) says that margin pressures due to a global slowdown have made IT companies look at cost-cutting even for talent, by substituting engineering candidates with MSc and BSc. “There are many companies that are running pilot tests on giving functional roles to BSc and MSc pass-outs. The industry continues to hire 95% engineers but is gradually re-assigning the various support roles to non-engineering workers.”
The intake of non-engineering candidates would impact the hiring prospects of engineering stream students only marginally, opines E Balaji, CEO of Mafoi Consultant. “An engineer would be reluctant to work on many of the job functionalities which an ordinary graduate could unabashedly perform. Scheduling a client call, monitoring the project progress, arranging intra-level team communication are some of the mundane tasks that a trained graduate with limited exposure to IT could handle.” Basic software testing is one domain where IT companies could manage the show with non-engineers.
Source: The Financial Express, September 2, 2011
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