Why Mechanical Branch of Engineering has decimated in the last Decade in the Country?:Cause, Effects & Solutions

India has set a massive task in hand related to the education system: In the last 75 years our country has seen *Gross Enrollment Ratio from almost zero to 25% and in the next 15 years target is to increase the ratio to double, from 25% to 50%!

(*Gross Enrollment Ratio indicates: percentage of students(between the age of 18-23years) enrolled in the Higher Education)

Its very bold target but quite achievable given the way the various degree and diploma programs are being initiated by conventional/online/distance learning mode. But Engineering as a whole and Mechanical Engineering in particular is not going in that way.(Can be seen from the graph)

Though some experts have different views: Like Prof Anindya Chatterjee Author of the book "Build and Sustain a Career in Engineering" says "Increasing the number of "educated" people increases supply but not demand. Many people may now have more democratic access (good), but salaries will go down for all (less good?)".

Now how much situation is alarming can be judged by:

In the NCR two NIRF top universities were having more than 350 admissions in the Mechanical Engineering Department in the year: 2011-2015 and in the next 2-3 years it reduced to 35. In true sense the branch totally decimated!

The story is not different across the country: Many colleges have surrendered their seats from sanction seats 180 to 120 or even to 60 despite going through rigorous process of Accreditation like NBA for increasing the seat allotment.

Policymakers and others have discussed the issue recently( Please check References). Here is my input:

Major Causes:

1.The less demand from the Industry

After three decades of dominance by software industries in the placement it is no secret that its quite easy to get a job if you have a degree in software/IT related branch. It is quite common to see average students from tier two cities colleges have made a successful career without facing any tough competition. For Mechanical, core companies like Tata Motors, L&T, Mahindra, Bajaj, Hindalco, EIL and other companies are still recruiting but getting through the entrance process is not so easy. Companies like L&T has recruitment process very frightening for average students: College Level/region level/zonal level.

Mechanical engineering is known for core job in government sector. One of major recruiter is Railways. Through Engineering Services, Section Engineer and other numerous jobs are there in the Railways for a long time. No of Institutions/students have increase many folds during three decades but on an average the number of vacancies have hardly gone up rather decreased in some areas. Some PSUs like NTPC, ONGC, GAIL, ISRO, BARC, BHEL, BEL, HAL, .. are the major recruiters for the Mechanical Engineering students. But the level of entrance exam is very high. Either they conduct their own written test or call for interviews on the basis of top percentile in GATE Admission. For these PSUs jobs also no of vacancies have been either stagnant or gown down in the recent times.

2.Mechanical Branch requires huge investment to start, compared to Computer Science/IT

Its quite easy to start a computer science based courses, BCA and MCA courses are run by some institutes which has less resources/infrastructure than ITI !Even two classrooms and some basic furniture, classroom do the work.

In Branch like mechanical requires huge infrastructure. Lathe , Milling Machine takes huge space and also requires running cost as well skilled technicians/lab attendants.

The Effects:

1.Zero Sum Game for Private Universities

Private Universities quickly aligned with the new trend. Its quite easy to change the number of intake for different stream, so some Universities saw massive increase in enrollment in computer science from 250 to more than 1000 and core branch like Mechanical the seats decimated from 350 to 35! But it didn't affect the revenue of the private organizations. so loss of one branch of engineering is offset by gain by another branch of engineering.

2.The Resources:

There is tremendous loss in terms of Human Resources and of infrastructure. Suddenly by lowering the number of seats has directly affected the associated faculty. In most of the institutes they are not trained to be used for the futuristic technologies.

Similarly there is colossal loss in terms of associated infrastructure: Lathe, Universal Testing Machine, drilling machine, milling machine are now rarely used. No one knows what to do with these tools. some of these are not started for than 2 years since beginning of pandemic.

The Solutions:

The Mechanical Engineering has probably the best curriculum. Due to its unique and practical use in daily life the branch weathered two industrial revolution rather thrived from steam engine led revolution to ford motor led unique assembly line revolution. But couldn't change itself to weather the current computer/internet based revolution.

Video: The working model of the one of the most complex gear train: Epicyclic Gear

Video: During Faculty Development Programme unders Government flagship Scheme(Ideas Lab)Faculty from different Engineering colleges had hands on experience and conducted many such such projects.

In the coming times when Languages like Python, HTMLare being taught in the high school, Its the right time to revamp the Mechanical Engineering curriculum completely.

1.Track Based Course Curriculum after Second Year

With First and Second years totally devoted to the core mechanical courses like: Engineering Mechanics, Strength of Materials, Manufacturing practices, Thermodynamics etc.

Students should have specialization right after second year of their engineering in following tracks:

a)Robotics: courses like Theory of Machines(TOM), Control system , Artificial Intelligence can prepare students a career in Robotics and AI.

b)Manufacturing and Material Science: Modern manufacturing system has changed a lot recently. Additive Manufacturing is one such example that has started almsot 4 decades back and now in the centre of Industry 4.0. Similarly preparing students for the Nano technology and smart materials based technology is need of our.

c)Solid Mechanics and Finite Elements: This track of the branch started almost 60 years back and with revolution in computational world the applications it is presently in high demand.

d)Fluid Mechanics & CFD: This area requires good understanding of fluid mechanics, mathematics and software. From the Automobile industry to aerospace industries there is huge demand. Often we find in news that industries are not getting the skilled CFD engineers. HVAC application is one area for which demand has outpaced the supply.

e)Operations Research & Supply Chain: This area merges to Management sciences and open the numerous opportunities in the retail to associated consulting job.

f)Total Quality Management(TQM): This track can prepare students for the high demand of ISO, Six Sigma and other high demanding job from automobile industries to senior management positions in any core companies.

g)Engineering Optimizations: Two of the world biggest name in this area is from India(IITK, Mechanical Department):Prof S.S.Rao and Prof Kalyamoy Deb. Prof Kalyanmoy deb is one of the pioneers of the Genetic Algorithm. Its wide applications from core mechanical design, electronics industry, antenna design to Modelling Financial world and Artificial Intelligence has immense opportunities.

2. Updating the resources:

The traditional workshop can be upgraded with new futuristic technologies: Lathe, Milling machines can be automated and can be made programmable with adding a layer of automations.

3. Skilling

Most of students skills requires for present day industry are hardly taught in the core branch in undergraduate studies. Due to requirement of heavy investment and ever fast changing technologies it is not viable to set up labs in the college so with government initiative and tax incentives the industry should be encouraged to setup the labs on the cluster/zone basis where students can attend certification, internship as well placement in job fair.

4.The scheme for the upgrading the faculty members

The government should allot dedicated fund for skilling the faculty members through Faculty development program, industrial paid training.

5.The Counselling

Engineering education is not like retail or other industries that can be left to the private players to settle with demand-supply rule. In manufacturing and other core areas of national importance if not taken care of presently then in the future there can be shortage of skilled workers in this area and which cant be supplied immediately. So government should set up counselling centers where students can be assessed on the basis of their interest and background and recommended for choosing a particular discipline of Engineering.

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