Can engineering education in our country lead the leap towards achieving a dynamic, Innovation economy?

A study by Economic Times revealed and reported the picture, problems, and the plight of substandard engineering education in India. It was reported that the capacity utilisation of UG and PG programs of several institutions is below 50% and this substantial reduction in the number of students joining such programs have eventually led to closure of many such institutions. 

Though numerous, new courses have been introduced with an increased emphasis on innovative teaching-learning pedagogies, there is a rapidly growing gap between the skills that are taught in classrooms and that demanded by the industry leading to a gap between the demand and supply of talented, industry-ready engineers. This is evident from the employability report that reveals how fewer than 4% of the total graduates possess the technical, cognitive, and language skills necessary for technology start-ups and only 3% have skills in areas like computing [AI/ML], electronics, IoT, desktop fabrication, 3D printing , drones, and automation & robotics.

Do we put the onus on the failure of the colleges to update infrastructure in a way that they facilitate practical exposure to whatever the students consume in classrooms? Or on the courses that are facing redundancy with a curriculum that is unmatched to empower students with knowledge on industry application? Is it because of the educators who have failed to come up with innovative, industry-oriented training programs and skills that comply with industry requirements? Are the incumbent, structured, hierarchical, individualistic learning methods becoming irrelevant to the millennials? Has quality engineering education failed to reach the masses overcoming their affordability constraints? 

To understand this, one needs to analyse the factors that determine the academic part of the engineering courses. Today academic content is the most important component and the success of the student is measured by defined metrics measured by various standard assessment methods. Though students and educators are held responsible for the outcomes, the compulsion and motivation to achieve social and economic success drives their efforts to an extent that societal elements principally influencing and determining everything that they primarily learn and the skills they build. 

Zooming out to observe the national scenario, one can witness the roadmap defined by India to achieve an Innovation-driven self-reliant economy. The ‘middle-income’ trap only adds to the risks and indeed it is important that the government aspires to create opportunities capable of generating high income. Though India has moved to the 52nd rank on the Global Innovation index with many new initiatives, what still persists is the wide gap between the readiness and coming together of two important players to lead the leap- the industry and academia.

On one hand we are a country with the highest population of youth who are losing interest in engineering education and on the other hand, a highly ambitious policy initiative to create disruptive technologies and innovations to transform India into the California of South Asia. 

How do we make this a reality? Why is this an oxymoron existing in the first place? What can we learn from the world and the theory of disruptive innovation?

Like National economies, Fortune 500 companies & Startups, HEIs are being disrupted across the globe. The Japanese companies disrupted the American giants in the mid of 20th century by thundering down on every industry with its cutting edge technologies. Japan was then hit with a turbulence by Korea, Taiwan and the cycle continued in every developing economy. An in-depth analysis of the drift shows that, all these economies had undivided focus on strong engineering & technical education by the predecessors which brought them prosperity, and prosperity led to the next generation opting for various other programs considering it as the new cool thing to do. India today is in a vicious cycle stuck with a growing population and a prosperous heir.

To solve this problem and recreate the interest for our upcoming generation while motivating them to pursue engineering education we need to first understand our major gaps in the fundamental approach to the framework; 

#1 ‘We need to do everything to do anything’ was the cornerstone of all the content that were framed and taught at most educational institutions. Today knowledge is distributed and collective. With the network effect taking over, the need to do everything to do anything has become highly irrelevant.

#2 Educational institutions have become a business model that combine consulting, manufacturing, insurance and more than all, philanthropic, providing anything for anybody. This has derailed the core purpose of losing track and clarity on outcomes. They have become a service-oriented organisation instead of being outcome driven by having a strong process oriented business model.

#3 The approach is always to redefine the way we teach but a very less emphasis is laid on the way students learn. If the way they learn becomes a priority, we would have to do mass customisation and it is impossible in the incumbent structural architecture with complicated hierarchies in place. Hence, standardisation has become the norm and customisation is always considered a challenge.

#4 Teaching & Learning is faster than ever before. Change is the only constant. The learning needs of the student, the rapid transformation of new age technologies and the competitive pressure from new learning platforms have evolved while the system is stagnant aiming for stability, essentially because it is an educator centric model. The need of the hour is a fine balance between pace & stability and strategies to becoming more student centric by building tools & techniques.

#5 The upcoming generation is more prosperous than the previous one. They are not hardwired & are prepared to take tough challenges like learning courses taught independently without any conjunction to actual application. They seek exploration & experience more than solving complex mathematical problems that are in no way taught in relevance to the real world and its challenges.

This is can be debated and may sound as a threat but it is not, it is an opportunity as we approach the exciting times ahead. A new paradigm to building an educational model with greater emphasis on innovation, driven by entrepreneurial mindset, leveraging the network effect should become the future of learning in the Country.

How do we retrofit the innovative model in the existing academic structure? How do we recreate conditions for powerful learning to occur? What can lead to an interactive platform between the students & educators?

All we need is a framework of learning that remains distributed to curate knowledge from different sources to a collective group with an environment that has a balance of formal and informal learning where students and educators agree to participate by choice in an intense, interpersonal culture; An environment in which educators play the role of mentors and coaches constantly reminding, revisiting and communicating the vision through rigorous interactions. 

Can engineering institutions across the country work towards this collective vision of the country? Should we create a collaborative, collective environment with a multi-faceted team that has the potential to accept uncertainty to embrace growth? 

This primarily depends on the willingness of the institutions to remain lean yet lead the transformation from the information age to the innova?tion age while leveraging the network effect.

Inspired by Innovative University - Changing the DNA of higher education by Clayton Chirstensen and Henry.J.Eyring