The Hindu Business Line : Too many engineering colleges in TN: Study

A STUDY on employment potential for graduate engineers coming out of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu has concluded that there are not going to be enough job opportunities for them.

The study, conducted by the Chennai-based Nandini Consultancy Centre, has, therefore, called for slashing the number of engineering colleges.

"The unfortunate fact is that there have been large scale expansion of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu as in the other States in the country without justification," the study says.

Today, more than 200 engineering colleges have been licensed to function in the State. The total intake capacity for these engineering colleges is reported to be around 72,000 every year. There are also around 1,50,000 seats for diploma level engineering education.

The study has estimated that the total number of engineering jobs in the State could not exceed 35,000 a year, even considering that fresh industrial investments of around Rs 5,000 crore a year would happen in the State.

"The State governments and the All India Council of Technical Education have erred in permitting so many engineering colleges all over the country, without relating the capacity creation for engineering education to the pattern of industrial growth in the country and requirements of qualified engineers."

AICTE, the study observes, appears to have taken the view that its functions would be only to see the adequacy of the facilities in the engineering colleges before permitting them to function and not to see the need for the required number of engineering colleges.

Many set up engineering colleges with an eye on the business prospects of engineering education, the study notes. Misled by the advertisements of the private engineering colleges, many poor parents have sold properties or borrowed heavily and got their children admitted into one of them, hoping that their children would land on plum jobs after graduation and earn the amount spent.

"When this does not happen, both the parents and the fresh engineers feel extremely frustrated and desperately seek jobs."

It is now common to see such persons, particularly not showing good academic record taking up jobs for salary as low as Rs 2,000 per month. They also take up all sorts of unrelated jobs and some of them have taken even salesmen functions and private tuitions for school students.

Many engineering colleges do not even have trained faculty. "There is a serious shortfall of trained faculty members in Tamil Nadu," because so many colleges have suddenly sprung up. Retired engineers are taken for teaching positions, although they do not have any teaching experience. Many students from self-financing colleges attributed the inadequate expertise of the faculty members as the cause for their poor academic performance.

Some of the students even suggested that the students should be encouraged to prepare confidential report about the faculty members, as is the practice in a few universities in advanced countries.

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