More Students Opting For Mechanical Compared To Computer Science In Engineering Courses – AICTE
In
March in this year, we had reported that due increase in automation in the IT
sector, top 5 IT forms recruited
24% less employees in 2015. What we didn’t anticipate was the ripple
effect of the automation phenomenon in an important sector – education.
As
per All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), enrollment and intake
for mechanical engineering has gradually and steadily overtaken demand for
computer science engineering in India, and this has been going on since last 4
years.
This
means that technical education in India is witnessing a massive transformation
from IT to non-IT field, and this can have some serious effect on the job
market in India.
As
the demand for IT courses in engineering is gradually decreasing, jobs offers
from mechanical disciplines are steadily increasing.
Mechanical Vs Computer Science Engineering
As
per AICTE data, total of
5,34,199 students enrolled for mechanical engineering in 2013-14, compared to
3,23,697 enrollments for computer science in the same year.
This
is the highest gap witnessed by AICTE vis-a-vis mechanical and computer science
courses in engineering.
In
fact, between 2012-13 to 2015-16, intake of mechanical engineering students
have gone up by 2 lakh, all over the nation.
Interestingly,
as the number of students in mechanical engineering has increased, job offers
has subsequently increased as well. In 2012-13, total of 95,000 job offers were
given to mechanical engineering graduates, which swelled to 1,39,162 for
2015-16 academic session.
Why Computer Science Demand Is Decreasing?
In
the month of April, we had reported that factory jobs are back in demand due to increased
focus on Make in India,
which is encouraging more manufacturing inside India, rather than importing.
This
can be a small reason, which came into effect since last one year.
However,
the main reason seems simple demand and supply rule: There are more IT
professionals in India, compared to the demand, and this is shifting the base
of technical education in India.
A
senior official from the HRD Ministry said, “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 of IT professionals in the
industry which is the reason that students are moving towards other fields of
engineering..”
As
an example, he said that if 100 people are required to create a software, only
three are required to maintain it, thereby squashing demand for IT experts.
Besides,
automation is also seen as a major influence in shifting the demand of IT
experts. Automation, robotics and technology can potentially
kill 5.1 million jobs all over the world by 2020, and World Bank has just confirmed this fact. The jobs which are being
automated as a fast pace right now belong to IT sector itself, although
mechanical jobs can also get affected, but the rate is slower.
Do
share your views on the transformation of technical education in India; and the
shift from computer science to mechanical engineering, by commenting right
here!
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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