Technical Education in India needs change

Technical education in the country needs an overhaul and some radical changes, scientists and academicians taking part in a three-day international conference in the city have said.

“We need radical changes in engineering education,” VK Aatre, former scientific advisor to the defence ministry, said on the first day of the conference titled ‘Convergence of science and engineering in education and research’ on Wednesday.


“The compartmentalisation of science and engineering is not a good idea. The interplay of concepts and ideas from numerous disciplines is very important,” he said.

He stressed on the need for incorporating research in the academic environment of undergraduate engineering colleges.
“We must look at integrating research in teaching. Campus interviews and few courses are not enough. Extra terms should be added to engineering courses to cover the curriculum. Innovation depends on human resource and technology, it can’t be attained without the two,” he said.

Aatre said it was a matter of concern that it was becoming difficult to hire graduates in some specific streams.

Academicians and scientists from numerous institutes attended the conference being organised by the Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering. They said an interdisciplinary approach was needed to face new challenges.

“We should stop making distinctionsbetween science and engineering,” P Balaram, director, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), said. “We have separated research institutions of science from engineering colleges, engineering colleges from medical institutes. Thus, we have fragmented education.

Unless integration becomes possible in future, we might not be able to generate new generation of Indian students who are capable of working at the frontiers of these disciplines,” he said.

The conference will conclude on April 23.