MASSIVE ADMISSION INTAKE MUST BE REWORKED

INTERVIEW: Professor Onkar Singh former governing board member, IIT Kanpur and IIT (BHU) Varanasi

- BY ABHINAV SINGH

A professor of mechanical engineering, Onkar Singh is former vice-chancellor of the Veer Madho Singh Bhandari Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun, and Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur.

He has authored many books in the field of technical education, the latest being Engineering India’s Education. Edited excerpts from an interview:

What has your experience of building technical universities taught you?

Technical education has undergone rapid expansion in the last three decades. With massification of technical education, there is perpetual concern about quality. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are not laying reasonable focus on continuous learning, laboratory exercises, industrial training and projects. The deficiency in basic technical competencies of graduating professionals is visible, escalated by skewed demand in the IT sector. Merely stressing on industry internships is not adequate to impart comprehensive competencies.