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Latest News |
| 12th
Aug 2010 / Times of India / Pune Edition |
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Long way to go for reforms in engg colleges
Pune: In November 2009,the state director of technical
education (DTE) had unveiled an ambitious initiative in
the city, aimed at transforming engineering colleges in
Maharashtra into world-class institutions.
A series of measures were then proposed including performance-linked
incentives for colleges securing a rating from the National
Board of Accreditation (NBA), promoting autonomy, research
and patenting activity, teachers training as well as student-centric
activities at individual college level. Introducing key
performance indicators (KPIs) for engineering colleges
also formed part of this scheme.
While DTE S K Mahajan insists that a majority of these
reforms have been set on course, the fact remains that
there is still a long way for the reforms to show the
desired results in engineering education. Engineering
colleges continue to face problems like quality graduates
preferring lucrative job offers from the industry, over
a career in teaching profession, said the principal of
a prominent engineering institution in the city, while
speaking to TOI on the condition of anonymity.
Institutions find it difficult to maintain the student-teacher
proportion for each course that is prescribed by regulating
bodies like the All India Council for Technical Education,
said the principal. There are coordination issues and
delays in clearance process, especially relating to grant
of PG research centre status for colleges. We have instances
where the regulatory body and the state government have
cleared PG centre proposals of colleges, but the university
has taken an obstructionist view in according the status
to these colleges, he said. Further, there are issues
relating to sabbatical leave for teachers wanting to go
for knowledge upgradation, the principal said.
Engineering education in the state has seen a stupendous
growth over the last two decades with the number of engineering
colleges going up to 312 in 2010-11 (264 in 2009-10 )
and the total sanctioned intake going up to over 1.12
lakh.
Still, there are problems like low employability of engineering
graduates (at 25% of the total passouts each year, as
stated by a Nasscom report); poor distribution ratio of
engineering degree,diploma and industrial training institute
students (1:1:1 as against the desired 1:3:8 ratio); a
lowly 13% gross enrolment ratio, ie. the percentage of
post-Std XI students making it to the higher and technical
education;and even a lesser enrolment at 2% for vocational
courses. Poor industry-institute linkages; outdated syllabus
and poor student-faculty exchange as well as international
tie-ups are other issues.
Mahajan said, Barring the KPI initiative, we have been
pursuing with the engineering colleges on most of the
other reforms, including accreditation, autonomy, teachers
training and promoting research and patenting. The colleges
have responded quite well and things will take some time
to develop.
The KPIs, proposed by the DTE, are the mechanism for monitoring
performance of engineering institutions and a vital tool
for identifying the best institutions.
THE BIG PICTURE
n No. of engineering colleges in state: 312 n Government-run
and autonomous colleges: 14 n Private unaided colleges:
298 n Total sanctioned student intake (2010-11 ): 1.12
lakh n Colleges eligible for NBA rating: 146 n NBA accredited
colleges: 45 n States annual plan outlay for engineering
education has gone
up from Rs 100 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 300 crore in 2009-10.
n Total government expenditure on engineering education:
Rs 3,000 crore.
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