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Sam Pitroda
Chairman
06 May, 2008
Dear Mr.
Prime Minister,
Engineering education is among the key enablers of growth for transforming India's
economy. The quality of teaching and research in this sphere will play a critical role
in the emergence of our country as a global knowledge leader. It will also provide
vital inputs for enhancing productivity across sectors. In the past two decades, we
have seen an eight-fold increase in the number of institutions imparting engineering
education at the undergraduate level. Yet, there are some fundamental issues that need
to be addressed.
A glaring regional imbalance has emerged in the availability of engineering
education. Two-thirds of the engineering institutions are located in four southern
states, plus Maharashtra, even though they account for less than one-third of the
population. There is much less access for the youth in under-provided states,
particularly because only 15 per cent of the total seats are available for those who
come from outside the state. It would be worthwhile to study whether there are any
cultural or region-specific factors that influence the choice of engineering as a career
in some states and not elsewhere. This could help make the spread of such colleges
more even nationwide.
Several recent studies have flagged the problem of unemployability of engineering
graduates, largely because curriculum and syllabi are not quite compatible with
industry requirements. Further, the standards of a very large proportion of institutions
at the bottom of the pyramid have also been found to be abysmal. Even good
institutions are plagued by deficiency of quality students at post-graduate and research
level. The problems are complex and deep rooted. The situation calls for a new
paradigm in regulation, accreditation, governance and faculty development.
As part of its consultative process, NKC constituted a Working Group of experts from
academia and industry under the chairmanship of Prof. M.S. Ananth, Director IIT
Chennai. The names of the members are listed in the annexe to this letter. The Group
has also considered the inputs provided by the earlier committees on this subject
chaired by R.A. Mashelkar (1998), U.R. Rao (2003) and P. Rama Rao (2004). The
study conducted by Professors Banerjee and Muley of IIT Bombay (2007) has also
been taken into account. Based on inputs from the Working Group and consultations
with other stakeholders, NKC proposes the following set of initiatives:
1. Reforming the Regulatory Framework
As stated in our earlier recommendations relating to Higher Education, there is a need
to establish an Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education (IRAHE) to
cover all streams. The role of the Standing Committee on Engineering Education
under IRAHE would be to exercise due diligence at the point it approves entry for an
institution to grant degrees/diplomas. The members of the Committee should
comprise eminent educationists, education administrators and management specialists
drawn from industry. The Committee would follow transparent and uniform
processes, under the overall supervision of IRAHE. The Committee shall also
determine the criteria and the processes of accreditation and license multiple agencies
for the same. A mechanism for ranking of institutions to enable students to take
informed decisions at the time of admissions by stipulating grading norms and
nominating independent rating agencies also needs to be established. These initiatives
will enable the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to focus on
important issues such as curriculum development, pedagogy, faculty development etc.
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