Microsoft Canada launched their Canada Skills Program in Fall 2020 to help college and university students develop in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Data, and Cloud software.
Engineering colleges
Freeze On New Engineering Institutes Due To Empty Seats
Source: University World News
Is India’s love affair with Engineering as a career path over?
No Takers for 26,000 Engineering Seats in Odisha
12,000 students have registered their names for admissions into the more than 38,000 B Tech seats in engineering colleges of the state.
Open-book Exam Likely for Engineering
Quality of exams in Indian engineering education system had been a concern.
Indian Students Can’t Think As High As Chinese And Russians
Blame doesn’t lie with students but the number of engineering colleges mushrooming in the country in the past decade.
No New Engineering Colleges in Maharashtra
Source: Times of India
After facing criticism from the All India Council for Technical Education for not submitting its perspective plan, changes abound.
How IITS Turned from Nehru’s Vision of Tech to Catering Engineers for MNCs
Source: TheWire.in
While the IITs have been in decline for many years now, some of the HRD ministry’s exclusivist policies are poised to drive them further into the ground.
10 Most-Popular Engineering Colleges for Top 1000 JEE Rankers
Source: Gadgets Now
There was a time when getting into IIT-Kharagpur or IIT-Kanpur was the ultimate aim of those who wanted to study engineering in the country. That is no longer the case.
Employability of Engineers A Concern: IIT Heads
Source: Times of India
“The country is producing as many as 10 lakh engineers a year…Do we really need so many engineers? Are there that many jobs?”
For the whole story, visit the Times of India.
Colleges Flouting Student-Faculty Ratio To Face Action
Source: Hindustan Times
Engineering colleges not maintaining the prescribed student-faculty ratio will be liable for action, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has said.
The complete story can be read on the Hindustan Times website.
Engineers Canada Releases Report on Labour Market
Source: Engineers Canada Release via Academica
Engineers Canada has released a new report outlining projections of the expected supply and demand of engineers in Canada through to 2025. The report, Engineering Labour Market in Canada: Projections to 2025, provides provincial-level breakdowns of the number of engineers currently working, the average age of engineers in different fields, and the projected need for engineers to fill vacated positions. The report suggests that recent engineering graduates will not be able to replace retiring senior engineers; inter-provincial mobility of senior engineers and the immigration of international engineers will be necessary to fill these positions. The report also recommends that traditionally underrepresented groups such as women and Aboriginal peoples will be needed in the engineering workforce.
Mock tests for students taking IIT entrance examination
Source: Mint via PwC – EdLive
Students taking the first single exam for entering the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and other engineering colleges will get a chance to take part in mock tests as part of an effort by the government and the IITs to familiarise admission seekers with the new format. Students will also be allowed to make changes in their application form after the ongoing registration process for the exam ends in mid-December. “The mock test will be conducted for almost three months beginning in the second week of January 2013,” said Vineet Joshi, Chairman, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which is in charge of conducting the joint entrance exam main (JEE Main) for all centrally-funded technical schools. CBSE functions under the HRD ministry.
In May, the government decided to allow admission to all IITs and centrally-funded engineering institutes through a single test to reduce stress on students who sit for multiple entrance examinations. The so-called one nation, one test formula was adopted after a nationwide debate. For selection to the elite IITs, students who finish among the top 150,000 in the entrance test will sit for another exam. To qualify for admission, they will need to finish in the top 20 percentile of their respective school board exams. There will be more than one sample test available for aspirants. According to an official estimate, more than 1.2 million students are expected to appear for the test. The test will be conducted both in the pen-and-paper and online formats. There are nearly 25,000 seats available in all centrally-funded engineering schools, including 9,700 at the 15 IITs.
225 B-schools, 52 engineering colleges close in two years
Source: The Times of India via PwC – EdLive
In the early part of the last decade, hundreds of new institutes came up and thousands of aspirants queued up to join them. A decade later, the picture is one of stark contrast in technical professional colleges. Since 2011, 225 B-schools and over 50 engineering colleges across India have closed down. Many more colleges have trimmed programmes, branches of engineering or streams in the management course.
Similarly, the Master of Business Administration programme was once the most sought after. Now, for the first time, the overall growth of MBA education is negative in the books of the AICTE. In 2011-12, 146 new B-schools came up and 124 that were already running closed down. This year so far, 101 management colleges have closed down, while only 82 have started. Similar is the story with the Master of Computer Application (MCA) course—84 colleges stopped offering the programme this year; only 27 started MCA courses. As a result, the AICTE has decided to allow colleges to offer a five-year dual degree programme and also permit graduates of science, BSc (computer science) and BSc (information technology) to jump to the second year of the MCA course. Yet, the small positive growth in the sector is from the engineering colleges where new institutes are coming up faster than closures taking place, largely in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan.
S S Mantha, AICTE Chairman, said, “This is a turning phase for the professional education sector. Colleges in remote India and institutes of poor quality are not getting students. And for colleges, there is just one key to attracting students: institutes need to be top-of-the-line colleges. There is no pay-off in running a bad college.” “The problem is also linked to the slowdown,” said IIM-Ahmedabad Director Samir Barua and added, “The job market has been tight for a couple of years. Earlier, many would give up a job to get an MBA and then re-enter the job market after pumping up their CV. They are hesitant to take such a risk now. The pressure is being felt and applications for MBA are falling. But undergraduate programmes such as engineering will not feel the same tension as everyone wants their first college degree.”