Challenges for Engineering & Technolgy Education under NEP-2020

The National Education Policy (NEP) of India has been announced recently.

Considering Engineering Education which has been relegated to obsolescence because of its own doing & making, we need to discuss few critical and challenging issues. I am posing them in the form of questions.

1. Does Engineering & Technology Education have an equivalent professional standing vis-a-vis Medicine, Law, and Architecture?

2. Is that true reason for rapidly declining interest & enrolment in engineering and technology education?

3. What type and kind of autonomy can be given to colleges to strengthen and enhance engineering & technology education?

4. How to make Web-based/Remote monitoring of the quality of educational institutions more effective?

5. Will competing private colleges be interested in Collaborations to share facilities?

6. Are we still stuck into major-minor, honours, double majors, electives, auditing of courses with a sprinkling of arts & humanities here and there to make it Multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary programmes?

7. What can be done to reform and transform IITs and NITs especially gearing them towards research institutions?

8. Will Setting up of Foreign Universities Sattelite Campuses in India that too not for profit be practical?

9. Will the government then have to provide partial funding for such programmes?

10. Would industries continue to sit on sidelines and continue to be reluctant to collaborate except for placement & publicity?

I look forward to your comments, suggestions, and views.