| |9 August 2018HIGHERReviewseeking admission in CSE/IT while the core engineering disciplines required for growth and development of the economy are struggling to get even the minimum critical mass to sustain them as a department.Major Concerns and SuggestionsSome major concerns/side-effects of privatization of the technical education system are:· Misplaced priority in management of institutions by focusing more on physical infrastructure like land and building and low focus on caliber, qualifications of fac-ulty, cadre ratios; student: teacher ratios working condi-tions and academic environment of the institution.· The concept of low employability of engineering gradu-ates has been over-hyped. This has created a sense of scare among parents and society about the return on investment in the education of their ward. While honest concerns for enhancing employability by developing knowledge, skills, and attitudes holistically are valid, over-hype on it can be counterproductive. No institute can develop a student to be industry-ready on day one because the requirements of industry vary and variety of expectations from engineer-ing graduates on day one is to an extent is infeasible. A balanced development inculcating right attitude and de-sire for learning to learn together with sound basic tech-nological knowledge of the domain is what an institute could do and should be expected to do. · There should be an upper limit of admissions in a partic-ular branch in private technical universities so that imbal-ance in admissions in different branches can be avoided. Due to autonomy enjoyed by the private universities, there may be a tendency to keep on changing intake numbers to respond to markets needs immediately. If we deliver qual-ity, then every branch of engineering has a scope and po-tential and if we simply respond to market forces and of-fer admissions disproportionate to the intrinsic academic resources at the institute; we may eventually be diluting the brand equity of even sought after programmes such as CSE. · We need to change the mindset where physical resourc-es are treated as assets and intellectual resources (pri-marily faculty) as liabilities. The only mantra for success is to attract, motivate, retain outstanding quality facul-ty to the institute, allow them the freedom to perform and enable them to develop and grow with a deep sense of commitment and a sense of ownership. A great teach-er alone can transform the students through inspiration and involvement.· Industry must not watch the quality degradation as an unconcerned onlooker. The ultimate customer of high-er technical education in the industry, government and the society at large and a pro-active, hand-holding of in-stitutions to nurture talent will be in the best interest of the industry because `hunt for talent' due to talent crunch is already visible. It is the joint responsibility of institute-industry-government and regulators to work in a team spirit to nurture talent to tap the potential demo-graphic dividend. Otherwise, it may lead to becoming a demographic disaster.If we focus on quality in all its dimensions then and then only it will be a win-win proposition for all stake-holders. If we ignore quality and focus on short-term my-opic goals; it may become an opportunity lost.A great teacher alone can transform the students through inspiration and involvement
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