Time to demystify the engineering education?

Hyderabad: Is it time for the State government to move away from the outdated and redundant policies that heavily favor engineering education and to demystify the perception surrounding it? For the past three decades, the policies of successive governments in the Telugu States have excessively favored engineering education at the expense of basic sciences and other fields of study.
This obsession with engineering has not only disadvantaged other disciplines, but the realm of engineering education has also become plagued by capitation fees, similar to issues seen with land and other mafias.
Speaking to The Hans India, a former faculty member of an engineering college in Ranga Reddy stated, 'It is an open secret that many private, unaided engineering colleges and other professional colleges have been violating every known regulation imposed by the state and regulatory bodies.' Currently, management quotas for seats in AI, Data Sciences, Robotics, and Machine Learning branches, along with Computer Science Engineering, are being sold for fees ranging from Rs six to 15 lakh.
'This is preying on the emotions of parents who want their children to have a bright future by studying premium branches of study,' says Srinivas Reddy, an assistant professor at an engineering college in Medchal.
Moreover, the fee structure for several new subject areas introduced in the top 25 to 30 institutions in and around Hyderabad goes beyond Rs 15 to 20 lakh, largely because these institutions have higher placement records.
'Yet, many institutions do not pay salaries properly to their faculty. Some colleges that collect huge donations do not return the original certificates of students, claiming that the state government has not cleared the fee reimbursement,' he added.
The manipulations of private unaided colleges include collecting donations, faking college ratings, and obtaining grades through fraudulent data, which has turned engineering education into a donation mafia. When asked, Professor N Sridhar (name changed) from an 'A' rated autonomous engineering college in Ranga Reddy pointed out, 'We cannot blame only the colleges for all the ills. The state government and universities must establish interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary pathways that connect different fields and encourage a broad spectrum of study areas.'
For instance, it is not necessary that a non-engineering student cannot study Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) or Data Sciences. The experimentation taking place at central universities, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), and other central universities showcases how the intersectionality among science, engineering, management, social sciences, and humanities has become increasingly vibrant and highly sought after by various industries.
Once the compartmentalized approach is dismantled, it will have a significant impact on demystifying engineering education, allowing non-engineering and non-IT students to enter emerging job markets in areas like AI, ML, and related fields.

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