India is experiencing a change in trend in the engineering discipline. The traditional practice of more students opting for computer engineering is slowly fading and being replaced by mechanical engineering.
An analysis of the data available from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the government body responsible for technical education in the country, shows that the number of enrolments in Computer Science as a subject has been constantly declining since 2012. The data also indicates that enrolment for Mechanical is going upward. In the last four years, enrolment in Mechanical has been the highest in the academic year 2013-14 at 534199. The same year, the number of students enrolled in Computer science was 323697, which has declined in consecutive years.
READ ALSO :
Several student intakes in these two disciplines have also shown a variation with the increase in several enrolments. The number of mechanical courses in various colleges across the country increased by two lakh from 2012-13 to 2015-16.
Officials in the government attribute it to the global trends of reducing demand for computer science engineering graduates.
“The IT industry was booming sometime back, and more and more students were pursuing computer science, but now the industry is saturated. There is more supply than demand for IT professionals in the industry, which is why students are moving towards other engineering fields,” said a senior HRD Ministry official associated with technical education.
“Also, one does not need to study computer science engineering to pursue IT. Everyone is studying computers. If 100 people develop software, only three people must maintain it, reducing the workforce demand. On the contrary, mechanical engineering is a field where one needs subject expertise to work,” he added.
Also, in terms of placement, Mechanical has shown an increase in numbers over the last four years. In 2015-16, 139162 students were placed compared to around 95000 in 2012-13.
Chemical and textile engineering are the least popular choices among students, even though engineering as a subject continues to be the top choice for students among professional courses like Management and Pharmacy.
