Engineering and B Schools Mushrooming in India and its ill Effects

"Knowledge imparts moral values and the methods to increase the strength of mind which leads to improvement of character. "He is wise who knows the sources of knowledge – who knows who has written and where it is to be found"- A. A. Hodge. Keeping education scenario as the backdrop, this case study attempts to cover the higher education system in India, the genesis of private initiative and its present status. In this case study emphasis is laid especially on the two professional education sectors Engineering (B.Tech/B.E) and MBA (Master of Business Administration).

Professional education is the process of instruction, aimed at the all round development of students. Higher education is becoming more and more competitive, gasping for breath during a time when India is aiming to become the shining star of the emerging world economy. India has about 367 University level institutions including 20 Central Universities, 217 State Universities, 104 Deemed Universities and 5 institutions established under State Legislation, 13 Institutes of National Importance established under Central legislation and 6 Private Universities. In terms of number of students, Indian higher education and research sector is the third largest in the world. Very few universities in India have made their way in the recent International ranking of the top 200 universities of the world, except the IIT Kanpur ranked at 29, University of Delhi at 130, IIT Chennai ranked at 132 and followed by Anna University at 200.

The number of private institutes has increased in the country impressively whereas the number of public institutions - both government and aided institutions - has increased only marginally. Nearly 30% enrollment happens in the private unaided institutions, which do not receive any grants from the government. However, with the count of educational institutes increasing in the country the same is compromising, at the cost of quality output of students for every passing year. The trend of having foreign collaboration with B schools has also been increasing in the recent past. In fact, a stage has been already reached where any one aspiring to get BE/B Tech/MBA/PGDM degree can now get entry easily in one or other school somewhere in India or even in foreign Universities and Institutes. Some among the many reasons why the number of B-schools have increased in India are:

• Currently, there are about 1,500 B schools in India and the number of students passing out every year is about 100,000.

• 100% FDI is allowed in the higher education under the automatic route since February 2000

• Many industries like Information Technology and manufacturing setting up base in India.

• Demand of skilled man power and high paying jobs

Quantity output but where's the quality?

Large amount of MBAs and engineers especially in the software field are available in India and the not-so-MBA-type jobs that they are forced to do. We call it 'Forced' because they are less skilled for the high end jobs but better connected than the section of people who should ideally be doing that job.

This is the flip side of the high growth in professional education in India, which is characterized by the mushrooming of engineering and management institutions all across the country. Although AICTE pats their backs with an approval, they have only created quantity of approved institutions, and not quality in the name of higher education. In which case, every child deserving or not has an opportunity to become an engineer or an MBA, the fact still remains the same that, such institutions do little to create quality engineers or managers.

When a Bachelors degree was seen as sufficient in the past even a MBA degree falls short these days. There is a lot of stereotyping done in today's professional education system –in most of the engineering colleges in India; you can graduate as a software engineer without having to write a single line of code. There is a huge gap between the elite institutions and colleges in villages, towns and even in cities.

The Nature of Competition

The Rat Race for achievement of chasing the dreams of society and family leads the student into wasting the opportunity to realize their own real interest and talents. A survey conducted by NOVONOUS showed that 80 respondents (Graduates) wanted to do an MBA after they completed a year or two in job because MBA increases the prospects of a higher paying job. Around 43 respondents aspired to work with reputed organizations and about 22 respondents opted for an engineering/management course since there was no scope for other fields in India. Baring a few respondents, most of them had lack of inclination towards management/engineering but still wanted to do an MBA, simply because they want to get a degree and fancy designation. These students are equally clueless so as to what kind of job they would want to take up after completing their studies.

Exhibit 1.1-Responses and attitudes of B.E/B.Tech/MBA aspirants about professional education Source: NOVONOUS Insights

Many B–schools claim being centers of excellence and charge huge fees and this is true for State aided or controlled (IIM included), university affiliated private or autonomous institutes alike, and new private universities. It is unfortunate that even Employers don't have any idea about this and they blindly support some B schools and pay heavy salaries while leaving out lesser known but well managed institutes that work hard to provide quality education and have good students available for employment. Employers must also do more research and patronize good schools by their own research. It will pay them well for this exercise. More over students must have a right mindset why they want to opt for any professional education.

Unrealistic –not attuned decision making by students

The core problem lies in the very perception of technical & management education in India. The Indian student community sees an MBA as the next step in their education that must ideally be completed before embarking on a job life. This is evident from the fact that 80 per cent of Common Aptitude Test (CAT) applicants are freshers or students in their penultimate year of graduation. An MBA degree is the education given to people with work experience to further enhance their management skills. It is simply inconceivable that a student who has never spent a day in office before will be able to comprehend, analyze and resolve the issues and challenges of everyday management simply because he has successfully passed his exams and acquired his MBA. This is precisely the reason why all the B-schools abroad compulsorily require two to five years of work experience as a pre-requisite to their admission process. Tragically though, in India, most B schools (including IIMs) admit approximately 50 per cent to 70 per cent fresher's into their course every year.

The main reason why students are not attuned to making decisions as per their interest levels is due to commercialization of management training. Today management and technical education (B.E/B Tech) in India is sold and not imparted. B schools harp on their ability to get the best placements available in the market for their students and students are ready to pay exorbitant fees for grabbing a seat in such prestigious institutes. The adverse effect of this practice is that most of the students who seek for an MBA degree do so for the placements their B school provides.

Exhibit 1.2 Reasons for opting for a placement and job profiles Source: NOVONOUS Insights

Therefore there will be many who make it through an entrance examination but cannot prove themselves in the real corporate race. As such, very few students actually comprehend the real scope and purpose of an MBA degree and consider alternative avenues such as entrepreneurship. As per exhibit 1.2 about 64% students were opt for a job that comes along their way where as 36% take up a permanent job assignment after engineering/management that is in line with their career goals.

Finally, another issue deals with the ethics and value system inculcated by B schools in their graduates. B schools and engineering colleges today predominantly focus on results rather than the process to attain them. The Indian education value system proves incompatible for long term success although efficacious for short-term glory. Students today whether from an elite big B school or mediocre management institute want a luxurious life style, with a MNC setup and high end office amenities provided by the company which employ's them. The survey conducted about student attitude towards learning and expectations from the organization which employees them are immense. However, students need to question themselves if they deserve this job and whether they can justify the roles and responsibility that the job demands.

Exhibit 1.3 Attitudes and Interests of students towards professional education Source: NOVONOUS Insights

The survey conducted by NOVONOUS on attitude and interests of students already pursuing a management degree showed that about 45% respondents studying MBA/PGDBM degree aspired for a job after their course. Where as about 15% choose to take up the course due to their career interests. There was an interesting finding that about 13% joined a professional training course since they wanted to take the path of entrepreneurship for innovating and creating more jobs for the society. Whereas about 11% who took up MBA/management wanted to join the family business and hence came for formal training to an institute.

An MBA is not only about earning a higher degree, wearing impressive suits, speaking impeccable English and quoting text from Philip Kotler or C.K Prahalad. There is much to add to the industry that especially the elite management candidates equipped with MBA degrees from best management schools in the country fail to foresee. The willingness and zeal to perform and excel in any given job profile must come irrespective of the company size, location and luxuries provided at work e.g. An air conditioned office, flashy cabin and heavy compensation package. Education for every student must come with a motive of learning and learning to do what interests you. Many management schools and students fail to foresee, but probably realize when they encounter the real world - a world prone to financial meltdowns and recession woes, where talent is measured by performance and not by the degree's from premium schools. Inevitably, the corporate world honour's just one rule – survival of the fittest.

Conclusion

The future outlook for education sector looks to be extremely positive- however there are a few areas which need to be tackled in order to improvise on the persisting talent crunch in the country.

• Quality educational institutions: India has number of engineering and management schools and colleges but only a few of them to qualify in terms of quality. Even not all of the IIT's and IIM's figure in the top educational institutes of the world in terms of all round development and ethical grooming of the student. We need to inspect and monitor the quality of education provided and modify them if need be.

• Qualifying examinations/Common entrance Tests: Government and college authorities must set stringent criteria's for the entrance to engineering and management courses. The entrance into these courses should be judged not only based on entrance exams but also on the basis of student aptitude, general knowledge, student personality and ability to handle a given situation.

• Quality of Faculty: Equally good trained faculty are required, who can groom the student not only academically but also to train the student to handle real life job situations. Appointing faculty with minimum years of experience not only in the teaching field but also with industry experience will make a better mentor than some one with just theoretical knowledge.

• Security in case of failure: USA has the maximum number of patents in every field of education. And, that is because the government provides them the social security in case of failure. In case if people fail in their venture, they have the support of the government but, who will support them in our country. All the journey in our country leads just to make yourself secure. Government should provide more incentives and encouragement for other kinds of professional education so as to encourage that the youth make right decisions. The same is important so that all those looking for opting for any professional education must look for their strengths and weakness and then decide the profession they which would suit them.

• Career clarity: All of us grow with the mentality of becoming a manager, doctor, IAS or an engineer because that's what every one else has been doing. However, even if one scrapes through these courses, when the testing time is here i.e during the time of taking up an assignment like a permanent job or an internship the performance will not be at the epitome. This is because the student has opted for a job by profession not by choice.

• Mushrooming management colleges: The road to top corporate brass has led to graduates shift of interest to management studies. With globalization, foreign investors have flooded business deals to a country like India, with cheap skilled man power. This economic paradigm led to a demand for more management institutes which necessarily does not produce quality and talent. Government must look into this as a serious matter as this leads to concentration of a large chunk of youth opting for management and engineering especially software engineering. Thus, there is a large talent crunch for jobs in other professions, which may be a reason baring the growth of other industries.

• Heavy compensation packages: The promise of big compensation packages attracted many students to pursue management degree for a career. Needless to say, the birth of many management colleges in India is the due to the impact of the global markets.

The problem goes deeper than just the lack of higher educational institutions in India. According to NOVONOUS rather than increasing the number of institutes there is a necessity of quality institutes for engineering and management courses. Higher education with regard to engineering and MBA shouldn't be made so easy that a student is not allowed to think about options beyond those discussed in these article. Moreover the governing councils like the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) must stop providing grants to any new institutes applying for MBA/Engineering course approvals. Also the authorities must conduct a survey and inspection on the existing institute's/colleges providing technical education like engineering and management courses to know the quality of students and institutes status. The history of these institutes applying for permission to set up such a course's should be also considered before approval.

An important facet of educational reforms should be the availability of options with a student to pursue the subject of his or her choice with an open mind. It's high time we stop talking about 'higher education' only in terms of engineering, medical and management. Higher education needs to mass communications, media, animation, incorporate arts, finance fields like Chartered Accountancy, Company Secretary, Actuarial Science, humanities, fine arts as well. Till this kind of expansion is not given to the realm of higher education, we can only expect substandard products from even high quality institutions. This option should not only be based on availability of institutions and the availability of jobs but more importantly on the applicants/students' aptitude. Quality will be restored when students are spread out in the many different fields that education has to offer. However, till that time the quality of pass outs from various university schools and private autonomous colleges will still remain a serious matter of national concern, especially with the large pool of qualified but incompetent professionals in the market.

The Road Ahead

There are other fields which are interesting but are not promising in terms of career prospects in the country. Higher education with regards to engineering and MBA shouldn't be made so easy that a student is not allowed to think about options beyond that. The other professional fields should also be made more presentable and jobs should be created in order to encourage scope in other fields too. It is definitely arguable that this could be to lack of innovative local businesses in the country because of which other fields aren't given the due recognition. Top recognized institutes in the country can look forward to introduce courses beyond engineering, technology and management. This will help students change their mindset and think of areas other than the popular courses.

Students must have a clear mind set while taking up a course's like post graduation in management/engineering with their career prospects and not take up a job with an organization just because of the company brand name or the lucrative pay package. India has all the potential to become a regional hub therefore; an increasing number of students from neighboring countries will choose the country as their preferred destination for higher education. Hence it is important that there is emphasis on quality rather than quantity, foreign universities could leverage the opportunity of offering contextualize courses as Indian universities/institutions are lacking in this particular domain and students would be also getting an international exposure.

Compiled By - Christy D'Costa