To Make Cut in International standards of Higher Education, Cut sprouting of Engineering Colleges like Chemist Shops; Regulators of integrity & Courage required: Academician Prof PB Sharma
FIRED by valuating hopes to bring palpable change in quality of education in country’s institutions
of higher education, Noted Academician and Newly appointed President of the Association
of Indian Universities (AIU) Prof PB Sharma has expressed grave concerns over falling
standards of education in some institutions and said regulatory system must be
made robust to bridle growth of engineering colleges as “Chemist Shops “.
His concerns
spiked after a report in a national daily recently that more than fifty per cent
of seats in the private engineering colleges remained vacant this year in the
wake of demand and supply gap.
“Unplanned
and uncontrolled growth undermines both the quality and standards and makes regulatory
bodies redundant, Dr Sharma said after
the said media report.
Engineering
education in the country seems to have reached the saturation point with around
54 per cent of undergraduate and postgraduate seats in the private engineering colleges
across the country ,or 8.67 Lakh seats of 16.07lakg seats, not finding takers
in 2016- 17, data put by a government site said, According to the media report
in question.
An outspoken Dr Sharma, VC of the Amity
university, Guru gram, is of the form opinion that Democracy requires regulators
of integrity and courage else Democracy becomes freedom infinite and leads to chaos and disgust.
At a simple
but elegant function on Tuesday, Prof Sharma was welcomed
by the AIU fraternity
as 96th President of the AIU . Dr S. Radhakrishan , Vice Chancellor
, BHU had decorated this office as President in 1943-44.
The
AIU house Officers and Staff yesterday bid farewell to outgoing President Dr DS
Chauhan, Former VC of UP Technical University.
Unbridled mushrooming of engineering colleges like “Chemist shops” is despairingly blighting national goal of producing engineers of excellence and quality in India, reveals a well-researched book- “Path to Excellence” by Prof Pritam B sharma who calls for a thorough review of the policy before it is too late. Driven by a quest to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), the regulatory system in the country allowed “mushrooming” of engineering and technology colleges and deemed universities, thinking that the engineering colleges are like chemist shops required in every nook and corner of the nation, the book mentions.
They overlooked that the engineering institutions are required to
attract best of talent both in students as well in its faculty community ….
“But for the crazy policy makers and regulators responsible for assuring
quality this was not the agenda as they primarily focused on achieving an
accelerated increase in GER from almost 9% in 2006 to almost 22% as of now,
says Prof.Sharma.
It is a matter of grave concern the much of this increase has been
achieved by setting up poor quality Institutions and adding seats in already
poor performing institutions. He notes it is the genesis of the utterly low
employ ability of graduates.
The world class universities such ad MIT, Harvard ,Stanford
and Carnegie Mellon have risen to the highest esteem despite having being
established and private research universities .Nothing could prevent India’s
privately managed engineering and technology institutions to shape as centers
of excellence in education cum research universities and rise to level of world
class universities in few years, He says.
Dr Sharma had been the founder VC of Delhi Technological University,
Foundrma er VC of Rajiv Gandhi Technological University besides wearing many other
coveted caps in the field of academics. He was also the former Professor of
IIT, Delhi.
Despite such a low employ ability rate (around 25 per cent as
voiced Industry Associations), India continues to be a prime attraction for
manpower development and for outsourcing business and services for many
advanced countries. Although 25 per cent of the graduating engineers are of
good quality, yet they account for almost four to five times the total
engineering graduates produced by American Universities as a whole.
India produces as many as 1.2 million graduates in its
engineering program as against America’s total annual out turn of engineering
graduates of 2,37826 ( as per WEF ,2015).
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