Engineering education in India

India is one of the largest producers of engineers in the world. In India, there are numerous engineering colleges imparting undergraduate and graduate courses in engineering, applied engineering and sciences. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs),National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and all State & Central government owned Engineering & Technology College & Universities are considered the best in the country. The graduates from IITs and NITs earn higher as compared to the graduates of other engineering institutes. Many public sector companies prefer to recruit graduates form IITs and NITs as they very technically skilled and curriculum in those institutes are extremely competitive.

History

See also: List of Indian engineering colleges before 1947

The impulse for creation of centers of technical training came from the British Raj rulers of India. While Superintending Engineers were mostly recruited from Britain, lower grades e.g. Craftsmen, Artisans and sub-overseers who were recruited locally. The necessity to make them more efficient, led to the establishment of industrial schools attached to Indian Ordnance Factories and other engineering establishments.

The first engineering college was established in the [chennai]S.A engineering college in 1847 for the training of Civil Engineers at Roorkee, Thomason College (which later become IIT Roorkee) which made use of the large workshops and public buildings there that were erected for the Upper Ganges Canal.

In pursuance of the Government policy, three Engineering Colleges were opened by about 1856 in the three Presidencies. In Bengal Presidency, a College called the Calcutta College of Civil Engineering (which later became Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur) was opened at the Writers' Building in November 1856. In Bombay Presidency, the Overseers' School at Pune eventually became the College of Engineering, Pune and was affiliated to the Bombay University in 1858. In the Madras Presidency, the industrial school attached to the Gun Carriage Factory became ultimately the College of Engineering, Guindy and affiliated to the Madras University (1858).

Indian Institutes of Technology

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has 23 centers located in Bhubaneswar, Bombay, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Mandi, Patna, Roorkee, Ropar, Dhanbad, Palakkad, Tirupati, Bhilai, Goa, Jammu, Dharwad and Varanasi. All IITs enjoy the status of the Institutes of National Importance and are autonomous universities that draft their own curricula. Many IITs are members of LAOTSE, an international network of universities in Europe and Asia. LAOTSE membership allows the IITs to exchange students and senior scholars with universities in other countries.

Admission to undergraduate B.Tech and integrated M.Tech programs are through JEE Advanced (the Joint Entrance Examination Advanced) in which around 150,000 students appear annually out of which only around 11,032 get selected. These 150,000 students are initially sorted out by the JEE Mains (Joint Entrance Examination Mains) which is conducted by the NTA (National Testing Agency). Around 1.3 million students appear for this exam. Admission to most postgraduate courses in IITs is granted through various written entrance examinations: GATE (for M.Tech.), JAM (for M.Sc.) and CEED (for M.Des.). The admission for Ph.D. program is based primarily on a personal interview, though candidates may also have to appear for written tests. The IITs are also well known for their special reservation policy, which is significantly different from the one applied in other educational institutions of India.

National Institutes of Technology

The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are colleges of engineering and technology education in India. All NITs enjoy the status of the Institutes of National Importance and are autonomous universities that draft their own curricula. They were originally called Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs). In 2002, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, decided to upgrade, in phases, all the original 17 RECs as NITs. There are currently 31 NITs, with the inception of 10 new NITs in the year 2010 and another in 2015. The 31 NITs are located in Allahabad, Agartala, Bhopal, Durgapur, Hamirpur, Kozhikode, Kurukshetra, Jalandhar, Jamshedpur, Jaipur, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur, Rourkela, Silchar, Srinagar, Surathkal, Surat, Tiruchirappalli, Warangal, Yupia, New Delhi, Farmagudi, Imphal, Shillong, Aizawl, Dimapur, Karaikal, Ravangla, Srinagar and Tadepalligudem. The Government of India has introduced the National Institutes of Technology (NIT) Act 2010 to bring 31 such institutions within the ambit of the act and to provide them with complete autonomy in their functioning. The NITs are deliberately scattered throughout the country in line with the government norm of an NIT in every major state of India to promote regional development. The individual NITs, after the introduction of the NIT Act, have been functioning as autonomous technical universities and hence can draft their own curriculum and functioning policies.The admission to undergraduate programs of all the NITs was done by the All India Engineering Entrance Examination popularly known as AIEEE. From the year 2013, AIEEE was replaced by JEE-Main (Joint Entrance Examination - Main) in which 40% weightage was given to the Higher Secondary results and 60% weightage was given to the JEE(Main) results. However, the weightage of Higher Secondary result was made to be 0% from the year 2017 and onwards and it was only given as an eligibility criteria (of either attaining 75% in HS results or being in the top 20% of the respective board). The examination is objective by nature and is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) from the year 2019. The exam was previously conducted by CBSE. More than fourteen lakh(1,400,000) applicants took part in 2013 for approximately 15500 seats in the B. Tech and B. Arch programmes available in all the NITs put together.

Indian Institutes of Engineering Science and Technology

Indian Institutes of Engineering Science and Technology (abbreviated as IIESTs) are a group of academic institutions in India for research and education in engineering. These were originally proposed by the Government of India in 2007 to meet the increasing demand for technological and scientific workforce in the industrial and service sectors of India as well as the growing need for qualified personnel in research and development. It was decided that the institutes under the banner of IIEST were to be created by upgrading existing engineering colleges or universities under the various State governments of India through an act of the Parliament of India, instead of founding completely new institutes. After upgrading, these institutes would also be granted the status of "Institutes of National Importance (INI)". The first institute to be upgraded to IIEST was Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, which was a university under the Government of West Bengal prior to the upgrade process.

State Government owned Engineering Universities

Aside the IITs and NITs, there are some Engineering colleges in India that provides quality technical education. Few examples are Anna University (NIRF ranking 8th all over India) and Jadavpur University(NIRF ranking 12th all over India). Calcutta University ( nirf ranking top 5) & University Of Burdwan,Burdwan (Top university asNIRF ranking), & others some like JNU,PU,BU,CU,DTU,MAKAUT(technical University) etc.

Indian Institute of Information Technology

Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) are a group of 23 institutes of higher education in India, focused on information technology. They are established by the central government but many IIITs have State Government and Private partnerships too depending on the particular IIIT, but they are dominantly centrally funded institutions. IIITs may have 3 branches, which are Computer Science and Engineering, Information Technology and Electronics. All of these branches are in some way related to Computer Science, a stream with the highest demand in India. That in part is also the reason of establishment of these institutions only catering to these modern branches. The advantage of these institutions is their focus on their respective branches only, as they do not have Common Engineering Subjects in the first year as most Engineering Institutions in India do. These are not to be confused with International Institutes of Information Technology, which have no Central Government funding.

The Institution of Engineers (India)

AMIE was established in 1920 in Kolkata, West Bengal and is acclaimed to have pioneered education in Engineering. IEI (I) conducts an examination for its Associate Membership(AMIE). This examination is considered as B.E. / B.Tech.[4] when contemplated as an eligibility qualification to write competitive examinations like the Indian Civil Service, Indian Engineering Services, GATE, etc., and for employment in Government, public and private sectors in India. This qualification is recognised by Ministry of HRD, Government of India as equivalent to B.E./ B.Tech.

There are 2 sections, namely Section A and Section B, who passed both of section he will be chartered engineer(CEng), chartered engineer(CEng) is considered as bachelor's degree in all National and International bodies.

Polytechnic Institutes

In India there are Institutions which offer three year diploma in engineering post Tenth class . These institutes have affiliation from state board of technical education of respective state governments. after which one can apply for post of junior engineer or continue higher studies by appearing for exams of AMIE to become an engineering graduate.

• New Govt. Polytechnic, Patna-13
• Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Institute of Technology
• Calcutta Technical School , Kolkata
• Jnan Chandra Ghosh Polytechnic , Kolkata
• Sai Polytechnic College, Sri Sai University, Palampur Pathankot Amritsar
• Pusa Polytechnic being one of the famous Polytechnic in India
• Government Girls Polytechnic, Bilaspur
• Government Polytechnic, Ambikapur
• Government Polytechnic, Korba
• Government Polytechnic, Mumbai
• Government Polytechnic Lucknow
• Government Polytechnic Nainital
• Government Polytechnic Nilokheri
• Government Polytechnic Barabanki
• Government Polytechnic, Nagpur
• Government Polytechnic, Anantnag, Jammu & Kashmir
• Government Polytechnic Solapur
• Kirodimal Govt. Polytechnic, Raigarh

AICTE approved institutes by state

List of AICTE approved institutes by state, for the academic year 2017-2018:

S.No	State/Union Territory	Number of Engineering Institutes
1	Andaman & Nicobar Islands	1
2	Andhra Pradesh	825
3	Arunachal Pradesh	10
4	Assam	59
5	Bihar	124
6	Chandigarh	14
7	Chhattisgarh	124
8	Dadra and Nagar Haveli	3
9	Daman and Diu	2
10	Delhi	78
11	Goa	17
12	Gujarat	427
13	Haryana	416
14	Himachal Pradesh	64
15	Jammu & Kashmir	53
16	Jharkhand	73
17	Karnataka	756
18	Kerala	380
19	Madhya Pradesh	556
20	Maharashtra	1564
21	Manipur	4
22	Meghalaya	7
23	Mizoram	4
24	Nagaland	8
25	Odisha	303
26	Puducherry	29
27	Punjab	384
28	Rajasthan	402
29	Sikkim	5
30	Tamil Nadu	526
31	Telangana	701
32	Tripura	13
33	Uttar Pradesh	1165
34	Uttarakhand	197
35	West Bengal	286
-	Total	10396

Corruption in Engineering Education

Some of the engineering colleges have been known for involving themselves in the illegal practice of capitation fee. All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the regulatory body for technical education in India, has called "upon the students, parents and the general public not to pay any capitation fee or any other fee other than that mentioned in the Prospectus of the Institutions for consideration of admission.". AICTE also mentions that the fee charged from students, has to be approved by the fee regulatory committee of the state, and the institute should mention the fee in its website. As per AICTE norms, the educational institutions are not meant to charge a fee higher than what is mentioned in the prospectus. Educational regulatory agencies such as UGC and regional level fee regulating bodies has mandated that an institution should include the fee in the prospectus.

See also

• List of Indian engineering colleges before 1947