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Dr Onkar Singh has been the founder Vice Chancellor of the Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur (U.P.), the first non-affiliating technical University of t LESS … MORE
Admissions for 2022-23 are by and large over in the country and the grim reality of a sizeable number of vacant seats in higher technical education has started raising eyebrows of all associated with it. The vacant seats in UG & PG programs of engineering, technology, and management are in stark contrast to the situation about a decade ago when aspirants were ready to grab a seat even by paying much beyond the stipulated fees. Presently, less than stipulated capacity admissions is there in majority of the higher technical institutions in the public sector and private sector, however, the exceptions are there in admissions in computer science and allied domains.
This is concerning on account of the future deficiency of technically trained competent human beings for sustaining the technological advancements and taking these developments forward in all domains. With the kind of industrial developments and technology penetration in day-to-day life, engineers and technologists from across the multiple disciplines have a critical role in maintaining it.
Prevailing situation of the day is ringing alarms concerning the sustenance and viability of several higher technical education institutions in the country which will eventually result in a massive loss of jobs too in the technical education.
The situation calls for holistic introspection by the regulators and academics together. Some may attribute this phenomenon to the ongoing industrial revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) and the predominance of the service sector economy and upsurge of cyber-physical systems. The cacophony of artificial intelligence, the internet of things, big data, blockchain technology, etc. have triggered a rush towards disciplines revolving around computer science and other disciplines of engineering & technology appear to have lost in it.
As a result, the autonomous institutions in the private sector increased their intake in these domains multiple times and capitalized on the present-day student demand. But the institutions regulated by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and affiliated to Universities had to restrict their admissions to the numbers authorized by the regulator and affiliating University concerned. This has resulted in the total number of admissions in affiliated institutions being quite less due to lesser admissions in other engineering disciplines like Civil, Chemical, Electrical, Electronics, Mechanical, etc. and their continuance is endangered, particularly in case of those functioning in self-financed mode.
Undoubtedly, IT 4.0 has opened new opportunities through the proliferation of the internet and computers in different domains and the dominance of the service sector in the economy is discernible, but the sustenance of present civilization necessitates the participation of human resources from all disciplines. The massification of technical education in computer science and related disciplines may also prompt the challenge of engaging the mammoth number of such professionals in forthcoming years. Besides, IR 4.0 is essentially integrated with various physical systems whose development is the culmination of knowledge and practices from various other disciplines.
Therefore, the skewed presence of technically trained human resources in the country may restrict prospects of furthering technology and advances at the same pace. It is inevitable to have human competence spread across the disciplines of higher education for striking a balanced growth.
Apart from the mass recruitments by the IT industry and average to lofty salary packages in this sector, the admission procedure also appears to be responsible for lesser admissions in non-computer disciplines. The multiple admission windows which used to expand the admission opportunities in the past are seemingly responsible for students shifting to computer-based programs across the country after leaving their seats in core engineering disciplines. Some of the apparent reasons for the drift of engineering aspirants to software-centric computer disciplines could be one or more of the following;
– the ease of getting jobs in the IT sector and global mobility
– the white-collar nature of jobs
– the declining number of jobs in manufacturing, infrastructure, etc.
– the lesser awareness of the relevance of other disciplines of engineering
– the inability to pursue their passion due to the dominance of the survival instinct
– the influence of peer group
– the hype created from the success stories of IT company icons surpasses the success stories of other engineering professionals
– the lesser awareness of the role of core engineering disciplines in the upgradation of civilization from the stone age to the current stage
– the expanding role of management, consulting and finance institutions
– the huge profit margins due to sole dependence on human capabilities in companies working in the field of IT, consulting, finance, management, etc.
– the ease of making up gaps in the quality of education in computer science through self-learning as compared to other engineering disciplines due to inadequate teaching quality in the institution Going by the trend of admissions in an academic session ranging from hundreds to few thousand in every private technical institution, the flooding of computer professionals cannot be ruled out in times to come. The practice of pruning down intake or closing core engineering discipline programs and enhancing the number of seats in computer domains exponentially could be the prime factor for such a precarious situation in future. Certain instances of layoffs in IT companies in the past led to ostensible reasons for the likelihood of a growing imbalance between the demand and supply of computer professionals.
It goes without saying that the way technology advances, the demand for human resources is generated accordingly. As a result, the tremendous growth of the service sector had increased the demand for software professionals in the past decade. Nevertheless, the saturation of the service sector is bound to happen at some point. And the use of software and IT tools in physical systems is the ensuing development in the offing which will be calling for human resources with core engineering skills in addition to knowledge of computer & IT tools. Therefore, the assessment of domain-wise technical human resource requirements is imperative in the overall interest of civilization.
The academic community ought to ponder upon the reasons for declining admissions in engineering programs in general. Proper human resource planning holds the key to sustaining and advancing the current state of civilization. The focus on enhancing the share of the manufacturing and agriculture sectors instead of the service sector may catapult the scenario.
Integration of software knowledge and IT tools in core engineering disciplines will pave the way for the multifold utility of core engineering professionals i.e. their suitability to IT jobs as well as core engineering jobs. Also, the simultaneous efforts to educate secondary-level students about the relevance of all disciplines of engineering, technology, and management will yield a regeneration of interest in students towards other than computer-centric programs. It is high time for the apex regulators namely University Grants Commission, AICTE, and the Government to contemplate strategies for carefully striking a balance in trained human resource availability from the higher technical education institutions of the country while ensuring access and equity to all aspirants.
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Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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