TOP ENGINEERING COLLEGES
The premier Indian Institutes of Technology have done it once again by claiming a clear lead over all other engineering institutions in the country, occasionally swapping places between themselves.
Top ranker IIT Delhi (IIT-D) exchanged places with last year’s topper IIT Kanpur (IIT-K) and this year’s fifth ranker IIT Chennai (IIT-C) traded places with last year’s fifth ranker IIT Kharagpur (IIT-KH) that has moved up to the fourth slot.
The biggest gainer has been the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), which is nine places up owing to the improvement in its overall score.
On the other hand, IIIT Allahabad has plummeted to the 23rd position from last year’s 8th—a cumulative effect of its poor performance in both factual and perceptual terms. The other surprise has been the JNTU College of Engineering, Hyderabad, that has broken into the top 25 for the first time.
Even though this year’s second ranker IIT-K introduced many pioneering technologies, the latest being innovative metals for train wheels to make them lighter and sturdier, this year’s top ranker IIT-D has taken the lead in innovation. (See graphic: Top 10 engineering colleges)
More ‘open electives’ and the flexibility to move between them means students can practically design their own course. “You could be a mechanical student who, in addition to your core electives, acquires a parallel specialisation in electrical. You could spread it thin over a number of areas or perhaps acquire micro-specialisation in a single area,” says IIT-D Director, Prof Surendra Prasad.
Two M.Tech programmes—molecular science and technology and atmospheric sciences—are being planned to fill critical manpower gaps in relevant industries. A school of biological sciences is also in the process of being set up.
The IIT Delhi campus
The top ranker also recorded a 30-35 per cent increase in its research budget, up from last year’s Rs 45 crore to Rs 78 crore which will help it double its intake of Ph.D students every five years. The faculty too rakes in close to Rs 100 crore in consultancy and research projects.
“Students in their first year itself are asked to design something new, which might not be great research or a spectacular invention but it gets them into the act of creativity,” says Prasad.
They are consciously guided towards taking up grand challenges. Although there always is a fuss over cutting edge research, innovations that empower the common man are not neglected either.
No wonder, 23-year old Nicholas Degrenne, a student of engineering in INSA Lyon in France chose IIT-D to develop his dream project on water purification units for rural areas and has teamed up with other students of the institute who share his zeal. “Working in IIT-D will give a lot of credit to our work,” he says.
For third-ranker IIT Mumbai (IIT-M), that has moved up one position from last year, there’s yet another reason to celebrate— its golden jubilee. Spread across a 550-acre campus it adds yet another feather to its cap this year.
A first in India, it has introduced an undergraduate B.Tech programme in energy science and engineering. “This course will prove very useful, especially since energy conservation is the need of the hour,” says Deputy Director Dr Juzer Vasi. (See graphic: Top 25 engineering colleges)
The institute has set up a separate department for this course that already has 12 teachers but plans to double this soon, adding to its faculty of 425.
Well known for its chemical, electrical and computer science engineering programme, IIT-M is proud of its Ph.D students also. “We currently have over 1,300 Ph.D students,” says Dr Vasi.
The 5,200 student strong institute currently boasts of 12 departments, 11 multi-disciplinary centres and three schools of excellence that offer courses in engineering, pure sciences, design, management and humanities. Besides academic and research achievements, the institute is also known for its intercollege extravaganza, Mood Indigo.
Fourth ranked IIT-KHis making huge strides with its brand new M.Tech programme, one in water management and the other in infrastructural design. For IIT-C, which ranks fifth, the leap will come once its newly set-up research park becomes functional.
A first of its kind in engineering institutes in India, the park will provide unique collaborative opportunities for industry and IIT-C academia to facilitate innovation. “IIT-C believes in developing analytical skills in students. This is why finance companies are picking up our students in campus interviews” says S. Shanthakumar,dean of academic courses at the institute.
Sixth and seventh ranked, IIT Roorkee (IIT-R) and IIT Guwahati have held on to their respective positions. Though bestowed with the IIT tag only in 2001, IIT-R carries with it a 150-year-old tradition.
Its bouquet of courses is vast— architecture, hydrology, management studies, paper technology to water studies and development. The other big mover is the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) that has moved up from 14th to 10th position.
“Our international relations make us different,” says Chancellor, VIT University, S. Viswanathan. Foreign faculty routinely visits its campus and its own faculty also gets to visit international institutes. Even students get foreign exposure under its ‘semester abroad’ programme.
First time entrant to the top 25, JNTU offers a uniform curriculum despite its gargantuan proportions. The 80,000 undergraduate and 3,000 post graduate students of its affiliated colleges study a standard curriculum that adhers to the same academic regulations.
JNTU Registrar K. Lal Kishore is enthusiastic about the fact that his B.Tech students can clear GATE—the all India entrance for M.Tech in national engineering institutes including the IITs, in the third year itself.
The university has recently introduced a new course in English laboratory communication skills to make students more employable and industry-ready.
At the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, that has gained six places to move to No. 18, construction projects worth Rs 98 crore are underway.
Director Sunil Kr. Sarangi believes that in its early years of conversion to a NIT, the focus was on “removing shortcomings”, but now the focus is on “improvements.”
The institute has received Rs 12 crore for sponsored research from the industry and plans to start a department of life sciences and a school of business in 2009.
On the other hand, the Motilal Nehru Engineering College, Allahabad has gone down from 23rd to 25th position while IIIT Allahabad has seen a dramatic fall from No. 8 to No. 23 this year.
—with Jhilmil Motihar and Anand Natarajan
—An India Today-AC Nielsen-ORG-MARG survey of colleges
Link : http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&issueid=55&task=view&id=8691&Itemid=1
