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New Delhi, Nov. 2: Only 18 per cent engineering colleges of 156 that participated in the first-ever survey to assess them on interaction with industry have scored more than 46 out of 100.
Nineteen per cent have scored lower than 15 while the remaining 63 per cent stand somewhere in between
Most of the 156 colleges that participated in the survey, conducted by the All India Council of Technical Education and the industry chamber CII, are located in urban areas. The situation in rural areas would be grimmer.
The findings have been revealed two days after the new HRD minister M.M. Pallam Raju expressed alarm at the small proportion of IT engineers who were employable. He had said only 17 per cent graduates were industry-ready, 30 per cent were trainable and the remaining 53 per cent were not up to the standard. To address this problem, Raju had stressed on collaboration with industry.
“One of the important aspects is linkage to industry for gainful employment. Now we know where to intervene and how to improve the industry linkage,” AICTE chairman S.S. Mantha said today.
The online survey was conducted over the past three months and institutions at least 10 years old were invited to participate in it.
P. Rajendran from CII said the survey was the first of its kind in India and colleges did not come forward in a big way to join it. There are about 3,600 engineering institutions in the country, attended by some 1.5 million students.
The survey did not cover the IITs or the NITs, which are the top-rung institutions.
It judged colleges on the number of industry members on their boards of governors and how active they were, on the average duration of students’ industrial training, the number of industry visits and guest lectures and seminars conducted, and the number and nature of campus placements.
Whether or not the colleges offered executive training programmes, and if they did, how many executives they trained was another criterion.
The institutions were asked if any of their teachers were on boards of companies, had presented papers to industry or attended in-company training or lectures.
The colleges were also assessed on the number of faculty patents adopted into products, technology transfers to industry, and consultancy and testing services provided.
They were asked if they had amended any courses on the basis of inputs from industry.
At present, AICTE draws up its curriculum for all engineering courses with the involvement of industry. It also asks institutions to send students for internship and to collaborate on research and projects.
“This survey shows that industry linkage prescribed by AICTE needs to be expanded further. We will work out details on industry-academia collaboration on each of the seven segments and ask the institutions to follow. Those who do not follow will not get approval,” Mantha said. “If industry linkage is not enhanced, students will be either under-employed or will not get jobs,” he said.
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