21 Aug, 2008, 1804 hrs IST, PTI

 

NEW DELHI: The number of engineering students going for advanced studies remains alarmingly low despite setting up of new institutions in the country, a study has found.

About 2.3 lakh students graduated in engineering in 2006, while only 20,000 master degrees and 1,000 Ph.Ds were awarded that year, according to the study 'Engineering Education in India', conducted by two professors of IIT Bombay.

Doctorate degrees in engineering are less than one per cent of graduate engineering degrees. The percentage of is much higher for most of the other countries like the United States (9 per cent), Britain (10 per cent) and Germany (8 per cent).

In the IITs and IISc, only about one per cent of the graduating B-Tech class opt for an M.Tech while two per cent of graduating M.Tech class opt for Ph.D, the study found. There are 1100 private engineering colleges which produce for 75 per cent of the total engineering graduates.

To augment research, India needs to start a series of initiatives, including partnerships with industries, strengthening existing Ph.D programmes and research facilities, it said.

Vacancies in faculties are also a matter of concern in engineering institutes, including IITs. For better faculty, the masters degree programmes have to be strengthened. India should make a target to create 10,000 Ph.Ds per year in ten years time, the study suggested.

In the research front, India is far behind China. While 19 per cent of the research publications are from China, India's contribution is only eight per cent. V S Ramamurthy, Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Delhi, who attended discussion on the findings of the study, said that "quality" was missing in the engineering stream.
The study was conducted by Prof Rangan Banerjee and Prof Vinayak P Muley of IIT Bombay and was sponsored by Observer Research Foundation.

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