India has the potential to be a global technology leader. Indian industry is competing globally in software and even in areas such as automobiles, chemicals, and engineering equipment. A critical issue for the future success of Indian industry is the growth of engineering education in India. Since independence, the initial focus of government policy was to provide the engineers required for the developing economy. Indian engineers established their reputation for engineering and design skills through the education & training provided by the best engineering colleges in India.
Engineering in India is the preferred option for bright students at the 10+2 level. This has resulted in a spurt in engineering colleges primarily in the private sector. Despite this, industry leaders complain about the absence of quality engineers in their industry. This is accompanied by significant unemployment rates among graduating engineers. There are more than 1,100 private engineering colleges and the best engineering colleges dedicate their efforts to equipping engineering aspirants with industry-grade education & proficiency.
The Future of Engineering
To crystal gaze at the future of engineering education, the readers need to look at the future of the engineering profession in the next decade or two. For this, the readers need to ask themselves the basic questions about future engineers – who they will be, what they will do, where they will do it, why they will do it, and what it implies for engineering education. The readers should also anticipate the environment in which they will operate and the challenges they will be facing. The changes and challenges faced by future engineers and the best engineering colleges in the next few years may be classified into the following categories:
- The Overflow of Knowledge:
The rate of new knowledge added since the beginning of the current century has been mind-boggling and the next decade will see it galloping further. The power of Google has been so immense that “Googling” has become the most common day-to-day activity for everybody, irrespective of demography and age groups.
- Technological Developments:
In the last century, technological developments and the body of engineering knowledge were essentially along well-defined disciplines like civil, mechanical, chemical, electronics, etc. However, the last few years have seen the emergence and growth of multi-disciplinary developments as well as the convergence of technologies. The impact of electronics, telecom, and IT technologies on all other disciplines has been very profound. In this environment, an engineer can not live in his world but should be open to interacting with other disciplines.
- Globalization:
With increased globalization, companies compete globally for everything ranging from products, markets, resources, etc. To be successful in these markets, engineers need to be culturally adaptive.
- Concern for Environment and Sustainability:
For the past over 150 years, most of the remarkable Engineering / technological achievements were based on the paradigm of controlling nature rather than cooperating with it. Ironically, the same successes like fossil fuels, automobiles, plastics, etc have endangered human life. For the last few years, there has been more awareness and concerns among people and governments on the conservation of Nature and sustainability of growth. So much so, that some companies started focusing on Triple Bottom Line (Profit, People, and Planet) objectives that are essential for sustainability. In the next few decades, engineers must change their mindsets to contribute to building a more sustainable world. In this context, it will be mandatory for the engineers to adopt Green Technologies for the design of products addressing industry/social problems.
- Social Responsibilities of Corporations & Businesses:
Industry converts natural resources into socially or commercially useful products and services using human resources. In this process, the day-to-day lives of people are adversely affected. In some cases, people are displaced in projects like exploration of natural resources or setting up infrastructure projects. Industry has to take the responsibility to address the consequent social problems. The last decade has seen increased awareness and sensitivity to such issues. The next decade will see Corporate Social Responsibility not just mandatory but a key parameter for the success of organizations and engineers, as professionals.
- Unprecedented Changes:
The modern century is characterized by sudden and dramatic changes in the economic and social environment due to factors like terrorism, European Economic Crisis, Social upheaval in the Middle East, etc. The world will witness more such cataclysmic changes, in the years to come. Future engineers need to acquire skills to anticipate such changes and more importantly, adapt themselves and manage them successfully.
Summing Up
The aforementioned points showcase the evolving times in engineering education from an Indian perspective. Readers can get a glimpse of the new changes and hurdles that await engineering students and the best engineering colleges in India.