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Dheeraj Sanghi, the Director of Punjab Engineering College, talked about the underemployment of engineers and engineering as a career choice. As per him, the quality of education is not good enough which is why engineers do not get proper jobs.
The Director of Punjab Engineering College, Mr. Dheeraj Sanghi, had a conversation with Chandigarh Newsline in which he talked about the challenges that the institution faces, engineering as a choice of career, and the drawbacks that the Indian education system has.
When asked about the reforms that he is trying to bring in the university, Dheeraj Sanghi said that Chandigarh does not have an assembly, hence the law to make Punjab Engineering College a regular university needs to be approved by the Parliament. He said that they have been trying to get the institute recognition under the Institutes of Technology Act (IIT) by the parliament since the past 55 years. That being a difficult thing to happen, many officials think it would be better to get declaration under the National Institutes of Technology Act but they do not want to lose the name and history of the institute.
Under a provision of the NIT Act, the parliament can add more institutions and universities which can avail the facilities that the NIT institutions get and may not be a part of NIT Council. This will be negotiated by the Director with the HRD ministry. He said that a deemed university is more regulated than the full-fledged universities, hence the MHRD will provide them with a higher budget if they get that status and that will give them higher autonomy.
Dheeraj Sanghi also said that it is an exaggerated fact that a lot of engineers leave India and work for companies based out of the country. According to him, a few people move abroad for engineering jobs and those who are working in Indian companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc. are much more in number. He said that this is a perspective about which people should not worry as engineers are doing great in India.
Mr. Sanghi talked about how many students do engineering without really wanting to pursue it and they eventually look for other opportunities like MBA. He said that education should be about expanding horizons and not just to find better job opportunities.
As per the Director, underemployment of engineers is primarily because of poor quality education. The main focus of colleges should be towards providing good quality education to its students.
Also Read:Colleges that are Affiliated to Punjab Technical University (PTU)
In the end, Dheeraj Sanghi gave some advice for the students who are preparing for engineering and said that the most important thing is to keep a healthy mind and be stress-free. A healthy mind is the only difference between a person doing extremely well and a person not doing well. He added that practice and hard work is important as it prevents students from performing under any pressure.
