Opportunities and Challenges for Engineering Education in India

The Engineering Education system in India has several distinctive features --- such as huge size; considerable diversity of many types; several strengths and weaknesses; several policy pronouncements; several pending Bills; a small number of institutions of quality in a sea of mediocrity; the emergence of the private sector as a major player ; etc. There are several national policy initiatives for laying down the roadmap for the future, such as the National Policy on Education 1986, revised in 1992; the Science Policy Resolution, The Technology Policy Statement, The Science and Technology Policy, The Science , Technology and Innovation Policy; The Twelfth Plan Document ;National Knowledge Commission Recommendations; Yash Pal Committee Recommendations; National Higher Education Policy (RUSA) etc. With a change in government at the centre, it is hoped that several pending bills such as , establishment of National Council for Higher Education (NCHER); National Accreditation Regulatory Authority (NARA); Entry of Foreign Universities; etc will be cleared, and also the promises made in the poll manifesto would be acted upon. These are the emerging Opportunities for Change - for the better.