Re-engineer the Engineering Degree

I agree on the writer's point of view. I am a victim to be precise as I had graduated from Tamil Nadu in the year 2014, I know that there is more work for AICTE to be done and No of colleges is rising abruptly due to lack of governance especially in TN, Andra, UP.
We need a Strong educational revolution here.

I will write a few things here and it is possible some may not like what I say, but here it is.

I see the article makes many, many comments about "mediocre" students and "merit" students. What is merit? The marks on AIEEE paper, or your board exam? The same board exam where the topper can score a few extra marks for some good handwriting? AIEEE, JEE are all exams working with extreme limitations and they do a good job for what they are, but there needs to be a fundamental recognition of the limitation of the exams.

1) No exam is able to test the practical aptitude of the students.
2) No Indian university admits into Bachelor's programs taking into account GK, aptitude or even a statement of purpose.
3) The exams (including entrance exams) have become a matter of practising repeatedly and not reading it conceptually.
4) I do not become bad at Physics because I do not get mechanics!. The entrance exams make a very bad assumption in verbatim assuming PCM score and allotting branches on the base of that. If I am poor in mechanics and still score a decent score, why should I even be allotted mechanical engineering? Similarly, if a student is good at, say, physical chemistry as compared to others, he ought to be higher up the preference list for chemical engineering.
5) The BE (or even BSc) course has very little to do with the science of 11th and 12th. Someone being bad there does not mean he'll be bad in engineering (Take my example, used to barely pass maths at school, now in Engineering Physics).
6) There is thorough ignorance to any kind of interdisciplinary education and research in India. Physics is physics, chemistry is chemistry, engineering is engineering, maths is maths, computer science is CS and IT is....export material. Except, in the real world, it is not so. Ask anyone who works with high tech micromachines and devices of today.
7) A student who goes the extra mile for studies should not be penalized for it. Studying chemical thermodynamics for a physics paper does not mean he has committed an error, it should be taken care of at a university level. However, in many universities, just like 12th, professors take an answer key and correct according to it, not bothering about nuances of the subject. Sometimes professors are overloaded with hundreds of papers to check, which makes it somewhat understandable - but then, this is an administration issue.
8) Engineering is not science. Those who want to study engineering should do the diploma. I realized it the worst way. People get stuck with no way to change when they took the wrong road.
9) Even at M.Tech level, we have (from MHRD) only 30% (maximum, generally 10-15%) weightage to personal interview of candidates for admission, as compared to MS admissions in the USA where Statement of Purpose and Interview is of far greater importance compared to the score in GRE.
10) We have unnecessary branches. Electronics and Communication Engineering? It is not a recognized branch in most developed countries - this course could have easily been given as part of electives in an electrical engineering course. Computer Science and IT has MCA, BCA, MBA, BBA, BSc, B.Tech and M.Tech degrees with it, all teaching the same things but having artificial differences created just to justify the existence of such degrees.

Marks are one indicator, they can never tell the full story. Like any burger or sandwich, a student population's average quality is not defined by the top or bottom layers, but by what lies in between. We need to fix all the above points if we are to improve the situation in India for both science and engineering. The entrance exams need to either be completely scrapped or need to adopt a more holistic style of questioning. Problem solving is only 20% of what engineering or science is about. What about the other things?

The current problem is a direct result of the above factors plus the greed of certain private colleges. Some work solely on the basis of their placement cells in fact. A good step will be to totally ban campus placements, that will bring an end to many of these colleges 😀