Dr M S Mathews, director of Alpha College of Engineering, is a seasoned academician and professor who joined the Indian Institute of Technology as early as 1947 and continued there in various capacities until 2013. He headed the civil engineering department at IIT, and his areas of interest are diverse, ranging from housing to restoration and repair of heritage monuments. Dr Mathews talks about engineering education in India and suggests measures for improvement. What is the current situation of engineering education in India and where do you think are we lacking? One of the main issues in the country is the mismatch between the number of engineers produced every year and the number that the industry requires. Last year in Tamil Nadu, there were over 80,000 seats that went vacant. This is a national waste of resources. If there is a system where the industry demand can be predicted, the number of seats can be adjusted and we can balance this mismatch between demand and supply. The other issues include the enormous variation in standard of education among different self financing colleges, and low standards of English communication among students. How can these issues be resolved? One way to raise the standards of colleges is to include web based lectures by the best teachers in each subject that could be made available across colleges. English communication skills could be introduced in colleges. Also, skills could be given more importance, along with theoretical knowledge. Jobs would open up in the manufacturing sector with better skills. Do you think that equal importance is being given to all fields of engineering, or is all the focus is on computer science? Information Technology will be in demand as the number of jobs offered is high. There will always be requirement in fields like Textile Engineering or Chemical Engineering, but the number of jobs is restricted. Mechanical Engineering is still one of the top preferences among students, and even Biomedical is now chosen by many. Civil Engineering has vast scope in the future, especially with the number of new infrastructure projects that are being taken up by the government. What about the pure sciences? Are they losing their value now? Fewer people are opting to study subjects like BSc Mathematics or Physics, although BSc in subjects like Visual Communication or Applied Psychology is popular with students. To encourage this, the structure of these courses should be redesigned to make them more industry friendly. For instance, a chemistry degree could include pharmacy, which could help students get jobs as pharmacists. You have been teaching for several decades now. What changes do you see in students? Students earlier were well rounded, with many singers and dancers and debaters among them. Today, a lot of students do not find the time for extra activities, because of the coaching centre culture that has taken over. What can be done about coaching centre culture? Coaching centres come up because of the highly competitive exams, and although IIT has tried to devise new methods, coaching centres haven’t been eliminated. If the IIT pattern changes, the centres start teaching the new pattern. The answer to this lies in initiatives such as ‘Super 30’ by Anand Kumar in Bihar who picks up 30 bright students from economically weaker sections and trains them for free, Twenty seven of his 30 usually get IIT seats. These students prove to have real aptitude and interest, unlike the masses of students who are driven to IIT coaching centres. In India, it is difficult to make education as flexible as in the West because of the large number of colleges and the variation in standards. But we could learn from them about understanding what one’s interest is and then choosing what to study.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 19:59:34 +0000
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