I teach engineering as a visiting professor at the local engineering college for fun. I used to be in academics but left that upon returning to India. Still miss teaching and research from time to time.
One problem that has remained constant in India is the way our engineering colleges, IITs included, admit students.
An 18 year old boy has no conception of what the world is like, especially in India. Parental pressure is immense. I remember when I entered IIT after doing decently at JEE, my family were pressuring me to take CS, but fortunately for myself, my counselor at IIT entrance was an old faculty who realized that I was not happy with that and helped me select a better line.
That doesn't happen for most people. Most boys are scared shitless of their parents because Indians infantilize their kids. The growing up happens only by the end of second year.
So, you have the situation of great designers who are stuck in CS but would have been happy in Mechanical engineering, and you have circuit whizkids who are stuck doing civil engineering.
Rank in a spot exam is a very poor measure of a student's ability to make the right career choice.
In the US, the system is very different. I recall when I used to serve as a faculty counselor for sophomores, we used to take the kid's performance, hobbies, career vision etc all into account before recommending a list of majors and minors to them. The result of such a process is excellent. Except in a few cases, where students went with their friends' recommendations, or did something downright stupid like chasing a girl or boy into a major, there was a very strong correlation between subsequent scholastic success and career satisfaction. Alumni feedback has consistently rated the counseling system very highly. It also reduces the risk by shortening the career choice and preparation window to about 20-25 credits rather than 60.
Typical division of credits is: 3:5:2 (common:major:minor). Electives make up the balance.
An additional side benefit of this is specialized training - you can have mixes like people doing a major in Aerospace engineering, and a minor in electronics, with electives in control systems and gyros, and end up as a compelling candidate for Raytheon or Lockheed Martin to hire. This is impossible under the Indian system.
In case of a mistake, subsequent changes of majors covers the remnant risk. The result is that most engineering UGs in tier I schools in US end up working in their discipline, which at the very basic minimum, avoids wasting an education (it is also priced correctly there).
In India, we have this strange obsession with forcing students to make career choices at least two years before they have sufficient information and mental maturity to be able to do so. This also skews our job market and creates the kind of problem that the Aspiring Minds survey found - too few qualified engineers.
If you hate what you are studying, you are going to want out, and owing to lack of interest, be unemployable. Most CS students, supposedly the highest ranked people, don't stay in CS. This is despite the lopsidedness of the market, which is finally beginning to correct a little.
I think that IITs and other engineering colleges should stop awarding ranks, and instead should offer major and minors to students towards the end of their second year. This current system, which is unique to India, is doing a lot of harm to our education system, students, industry and ultimately the country itself.
