Transforming Engineering Education in India

Abstract

Since India gained her independence from the British colonial rule, education system in India in general, and particularly engineering education system, has not produced the kind of trained talent needed to develop and industrialize the country to be in par with the developed economies of the world. It is disheartening to see that Indian-born scientists and engineers who obtained their basic education in India have gone abroad and performed exceptionally well. The problem is deep-rooted as the Indian education system to a large extent suffers from age old methodologies and beliefs that are cemented in the society. There is no reason why India cannot overcome this problem and unleash her enormous nascent human talent in order to rapidly develop and industrialize the country. Government deregulation and privatization, innovation and entrepreneurship, quality faculty with adequate compensation, and open-to-all competitive research funding are perhaps the key elements that may lay out the foundation for this transformation.