THE INDIAN ENGINEERING BUBBLE
Just a few days back it was reported that the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) wants to close down 800 engineering colleges across the country. Some 150 engineering colleges have already voluntarily accepted closure. AICTE has already closed down more than 450 colleges across India in the past 3 years. All this because majority of engineering colleges in India have not been able to provide quality education to the engineering aspirants. We all are aware of the reports that have been coming in the past few years about the lack of employability of almost 97% of the engineering graduates. Looking at this figure, it will be an understatement to say that the engineering colleges are providing substandard education. The problem evidently is much bigger and graver than it looks. The technical education scene in India is imploding albeit slowly.
Why has engineering reduced to such low levels in a country where it is one of the only two most revered professions? Engineering and medical are perhaps the most coveted choices for careers for majority of aspiring professionals in India. Since I don’t have any connection with the medical field apart from my doctor, I will stick to engineering. I am an engineer myself and have gone through the very process that has been under the scanner. Perhaps it is also the reason why I was compelled to think about this issue.
With as limited knowledge I have of the world, I feel that the engineering education conundrum in India has loosely followed the path of a bubble. Here’s how.
The first step in the formation of a bubble is Displacement – This occurs when investors are enamoured by new phenomenon which historically was not easily accessible to them. Engineering education in India gained traction when the government started programs to promote technical education. It set up IITs in various states which till date are institutes of national importance. There were very few private colleges that were providing a similar level of quality education as the IITs. Those who passed out of these colleges were paid handsomely by companies because of their capabilities. This enticed a lot of people but were unable to get into engineering as the seats were less and getting in was tough.
The next phase of the bubble is Boom – The phenomenon gains momentum as more and more participants enter the market, setting the stage for the boom phase. It attracts a lot of attention. Fear of missing out on what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity spurs more speculation, drawing an increasing number of participants into the fold. This phase in India happened due to the phenomenon of ‘IT – employability’. The rise of numerous private engineering colleges run by politicians added the required fuel to the fire. Getting admission in engineering became relatively easy. IT was providing jobs to almost any engineer with a degree. Nobody questioned the quality of jobs they were getting.
The third phase of a bubble is Euphoria – Here caution is thrown out of the window and the phenomenon goes viral. There were colleges in India that were run in 2 rooms. Nobody in the governing bodies gauged the insanity of what was going on. The Greater Fool theory started playing out everywhere. There were takers for the colleges no matter how bad the quality of the college was just for the degree.
The last stage of the bubble is Panic – While the euphoria is on, there are some events that happen in retrospect, that tell a different story. This small event is enough to prick the bubble. Thus the panic sets in. In engineering that happened when media started publishing reports about the dire low levels of employability of engineering graduates and quality of education. Although we are still in this phase, it is unfolding for quite some time now. Engineering graduates are not able to find jobs and hence the credibility of many colleges and technical education in India as a whole is under question. Students have started going abroad for higher technical education as their belief in the system here has been shattered. This doesn’t feel like panic as its repercussions will be seen slowly.
Although slow, the repercussions of this disaster are going to be graver than we think. This system puts the future of a majority of engineers in jeopardy. Students tend to opt for higher education even when it is not affordable to many of them as they don’t find job prospects for their degree. This creates other financial problems for students as they tend to rely on heavy education loans. Additionally, it also gives impetus to the academic inflation that has been slowly thriving in our country. The rise of artificial intelligence is going fuel the fire if the engineering candidates are not skilled in appropriate manner.
On a more optimistic note, I feel that the slow unfolding of this issue gives us a chance to mitigate the impact and eliminate it somehow in the future. It gives us some room to build a plane while we are falling off a cliff. A bubble is caused not by itself but because the system makes it easier for them to form. As John Maynard Keynes puts it, “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” We cannot start with the symptom and expect it to solve the underlying issue. The engineering bubble is caused because of the nature of our educational system. There would be more such bubbles if we don’t fix the system altogether. Whatever the reason, Indian education system is nowhere in comparison to its global counterparts. The curriculum and exam culture are outdated and incentivize students to do all the wrong things. The rote learning culture is persistent from the primary levels of education. Students are expected to spend time in mindless coaching classes with no regard for actual learning. They are eager to just finish the 4 year course and land a ‘safe’ job.
It is insanity to keep doing the same thing again and again. What we need to do is make the students industry ready by not only giving them the required technical knowledge, but also an ability to think what is right for them from an early stage. Developing soft and interpersonal skills should be of utmost importance. We need to some radical innovations in the way we think about education. There are some positive steps happening in that direction but it won’t be enough unless a majority of the ecosystem adopts them. As an engineer, I feel a slight pinch while writing this and I hope that the current scenario changes from being pessimistic to cautiously optimistic in the future.