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Latest News |
| 30th
Aug 2010 / Business Standard |
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Problem of plenty: Engineering seats lying vacant in
West Bengal
Engineering education in West Bengal is facing a problem
of plenty. Around 6,238 seats are lying vacant after the
second round of counselling and the reasons are manifold.
A third round of counselling is slated between August
29 and 31, to fill up the vacancies.
Experts said the primary reason is the increasing number
of private engineering colleges that stands at 79. This
is a sharp increase from around 2,200 vacancies last year
from 73 private engineering colleges. The total number
of engineering seats in West Bengal is about 28,100 compared
to 24,000 last year.
R Roy, an Information Technology (IT) graduate from Dr
BC Roy Engineering College, Durgapur, said, “In
our country, a student decides to study or not to study
a subject depending on its job prospects. The number of
information technology seats remaining vacant is not surprising.
If a student specialises in mechanical or electrical engineering,
he will get openings in IT along with his mother trade,
but not vice-versa.”
Moreover, during the recession top-rung software firms
such as TCS, Cognizant and Infosys had reduced their employee
strength. The lack of infrastructure, the quality of faculty
and poor placement go against most private engineering
colleges.
| NATIONWIDE TREND |
| * In Tamil Nadu, around 51,000 seats out of the
total 1,65,980 seats are vacant in 440 engineering
colleges |
| * Central Counselling Board website says 10,730
engineering seats are vacant across colleges in
the country after the fourth round of counselling
in All India Engineering Entrance Examination |
| * Some of the lower branches in the National Institutes
of Technology remain vacant in some states |
“In 2005, my college could not provide placement.
And most faculty members do not have much exposure in
the industry. Out of the 79, about 5-6 colleges provide
decent level of placements,” said Roy.
“Long back, the entrance board used to publish names
of around 1,000 students for admission. Now, with the
proliferation of private engineering colleges, that number
has crossed 50,000 or so. As a result, the quality of
students is not good and ranking and employability has
now become inversely proportional,” he said.
Prasenjit Dutta, who graduated with computer science in
2005 from Bengal Institute of Technology, Bamunghata,
near Kolkata, echoed Roy’s views. “Allowing
one group to open only one institute would help in standardisation,”
he said.
The increase in course fees hasn’t helped the situation
either. There has been an increase in fees from Rs 40,000
last year to Rs 71,000. Experts see this as another reason
for the high rate of vacancies.
Siddharta Datta, chairman of the Joint Entrance Examination
Board, said, this is a national phenomenon. “Nationally,
about 4.5 million students appear for the school leaving
examination every year. Of these, 0.45 million are from
the science stream which is about 10 per cent and 0.4
million passes the examination. But there are 0.5 million
engineering seats in the country. Among them, students
opt for medical, general sciences and other courses. Last
year, seats in IT and food technology remained vacant.
This year, computer science, applied electronics, bio-technology
and pharmacy have added to the list.”
Datta said about 60 private colleges did not have vacancies.
Earlier, the process was to first take permission from
the state government and the university and then to approach
the AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education).
From last year, the investors in the education sector
have been allowed to approach the AICTE directly. As a
result, the state government does not have say in engineering
education.
Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chowdhury, commentator and professor
of Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata said, “There
were a handful of government-run engineering colleges
in West Bengal till the late 90s. Now, more students are
graduating than needed by the industry.”
He said that the quality and standard of education is
under the scanner and AICTE should set up a national standard.
“The state does not seem to have a focussed policy
on higher education either. When we did not have many
engineering colleges, we opted for a knee-jerk reaction
leading to a proliferation of private colleges. As a result,
we do not have a long-term policy and the quality and
standard have been seriously compromised.”
Basu Roy Chowdhury also said that over-politicisation
of the education sector is also affecting it adversely.
“The state government should try to create more
jobs in line with industrially advanced states such as
Maharashtra and Karnataka. Till that is done, interests
of students in engineering is not likely to pick up.”
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