“There is an urgent need to evaulate Indian Higher Education from ground zero to curb the gap between the Industry and Education Sector” – Eknath T. Bayas
India is a developing country with ample human resources available. With 1.2 billion-plus population how much of these resources are effectively used is the billion-dollar question!
The same question applies when it comes to graduated students. Every year more than 1.5 million students are passing out, India has become a factory churning out graduates. According to the recent reports hardly 30% of them are employable and the ratio is traveling down as years pass by.
Why is that, out of many graduates only a handful of peoples is employable?
Its industry-academia gap! It’s the gap between the Higher Education System and the Industries expectation from entry-level graduates. Academia gap is emerging because there is something lacking. So what is lacking in our education system? How to bridge the gap between academia and Industry.
To discuss these issues and find out an effective and immediate solution we at Eduvoice invite Academic Leaders. This time we got a great opportunity to have a fruitful discussion with Mr. Eknath T. Bayas, Assistant Professor at Amrutvahini College of Engineering, Sangamner (Maharashtra) who is also the first Eduvoice’s Executive Committee Member.
Mr. Eknath Bayas shared his views on the major problems that professors and students are facing in universities regarding syllabus, courses as well as teaching patterns. He said that the problem lies in the fact that every college follows the same pattern of teaching.
Mr. Eknath Bayas firmly believes that the higher education curriculum is outdated and is not as per the industry requirement. He discussed that the reason behind these problems is that the course curators are not aware of the expectations of the industry from the freshers. Mr. Eknath also says that in every four-year the courses are being revised but still the opinion of the corporate leaders is not being taken into consideration.
He adds that the solution to these problems is that the corporate leaders should come up with ideas and put it right up front to the course curators which will lead to change in the curriculum. On asking Mr. Eknath Bayas about how AICTE can help in working towards this change, he said,
“If AICTE adds the condition to consider corporate leader’s opinions while framing the curriculum, then most of the universities will have to follow it. But still, the colleges & universities will frame their syllabus in accordance with their university’s local authority.”
When we questioned him about the quality of teaching in the universities and colleges, he answered that the quality of education is not satisfactory as the professors are not well trained about teaching methodologies and research tools at different levels of positions for goal setting for personal and professional growth.
The professors should go through regular training programs so that they can gain insights into the current scenario and impart relevant training to the students. As a member of the different tasks force, the HOD’s and Principles should also be a part of such a training process. Most importantly, a proper feedback mechanism should be there.
According to Mr. Eknath Bayas, case studies and project-based learning should be used as the teaching pedagogies in universities. He firmly believes that Indian universities solely depend on imparting theoretical knowledge to the students. He adds that through theoretical knowledge is important the practical use of it is what actually matters.
Talking about the solution to these problems Mr.Eknath Bayas informed us that, right from the beginning i.e. from the first year, students should be given small subject wise projects as an assignment so that they can understand the practical application of the things that they are learning.
Secondly, professors should know about the intricacies of project-based learning. They must know about the level of projects that they give to the students and how to evaluate the students on the basis of these projects. For this, a greater number of FDPs (faculty development programs) should be organized.
Finally, the sandwich pattern should be followed where students gain 50 % knowledge from the college curriculum and the remaining half by doing internships in the industry, the ratio of theoretical and industry may vary such as 70 -30, etc.
We moved on to question Mr. EknathBayas about College Placement Approaches. To this, he answered that these days colleges only prepare students for the service industry & are not focusing on other industries such as the manufacturing industry.
The reason behind this is that the colleges have to fulfill their responsibility of providing placements to the students and that’s why they choose easy to track as Service Industry provides bulk placements.
He added that the Electronic and other non-IT branches should prepare for the software industry because there is less scope in electronics and ENTC branches. Although colleges should try to find the core organizations in order to dig out more opportunities for non-IT Branches.
Mr. EknathBayasdirected the discussion towards the issue i.e. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is not gripped in the academic world. He feels that IPR must be part of the syllabus so that students get the knowledge of patent, copyright & Industrial Design.
Students are innovative but there is a lack of knowledge about how to get rights of their innovation so IPR should be part of the subject. Mr. Eknath Bayas strongly believes that ‘Introduction to IPR’ should be added to the syllabus as a subject.
After talking to Mr. Ekanath T. Bayas we can say that Theoretical Knowledge and Practical Learning both go hand in hand. One must have experienced the challenges and opportunities in both the domains so as to fetch a good career for himself/herself.
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Really Nice article Sir.
Current Manufacturing Industries requirements much more from fresher students.
Nice article by prof Eknath Bayan. It’s true about gap between industry and syllabus.
The views expressed by Prof.Bayas are noteworthy and implementation of innovative methods in teaching and learning like case study, PBL need urgent attention.
Nic jiju…
Mr. E. T. Bayas sir said that the higher education curriculum is outdated and is not as per the industry requirement, I am also agree with him because the syllabus set by University is not of use for industry.
Yes, of course there is a need of transformation in the teaching & learning process so as to emerge industry absorptive worthy graduates. Great stand in eduvoice Mr. E. T. Bayas sir.
Truly said by Bayas Sir. Need to fill gap between University syllabus and Industry. More opportunities coming soon in India. Industrial requirements is ? priorities for educational institutions.
Need to motivate students get internship opportunities in Industry.
I seen many times Bayas Sir doing very good for students in social platform as well.
Keep it up Sir.
Thank you
Kiran Jadhav
Technical Team Lead
Infosys Ltd
Good article. Practical / Outside / industry world and there challenges are changing very fast, so, all should upgrade accordingly. Need of hour now.
In this era of competition gap between academics and industries, the studies of Mr.E.T.Bayas is very useful.
In my view what Mr.Eknath Bayas said is vert true to consider the corporate leaders requirement can play a vital role to formulate the syllabus which is very essential as per today’s scenario and current market.
Very Nice article Bayas Sir. Keep it up.
Really good article
Nice article prof bayas