As IT slumps, engineering colleges reduce seats
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IT slumps|Engineering colleges
Colleges
across the country are cutting back on IT seats, looking to surrender
them and seek permission from tech education regulator All India Council
for Technical Education (AICTE) to swap them for seats in core
engineering branches.
COIMBATORE:
Time was when the first choice of most aspiring engineering students
was information technology. That was 15 years ago.
After the internet bubble burst of 2000, the second great recession of 2007-2009 and ominous signs of a second bubble building up to critical mass in 2013 — when tech companies worldwide raised close to $13 billion in IPOs — there are fewer jobs in the market than there are IT seats in engineering colleges.
Colleges across the country are cutting back on IT seats, looking to surrender them and seek permission from tech education regulator All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to swap them for seats in core engineering branches.
Of the 26 branches of engineering offered, engineering colleges in the state this year have 12,242 IT seats, which is around a third of the 37,534 seats in electronics and communication engineering. IT seats also account for a little more than half of the 23,465 seats in civil engineering and 23,059 seats in electrical and electronics engineering.
Students of IT in their graduating year still appear for campus placements, only now they have to contend with students of other departments in a gloomy job market.
"The companies that visit colleges early recruit the most students," a professor at an engineering college said. "With colleges allowing students of all streams to attend campus placements together, IT students are forced to compete with students from other departments. And IT students lose out because they are only recruited by tech companies. Students of core engineering branches are recruited by tech companies and firms in other sectors."
Colleges constantly attempt to better their placement records. To have a sustained run at the top, they cannot have students who are not recruited at the end of a course.
"To ensure that students are placed, irrespective of branches, it is important that we balance strength across all departments with the market conditions in mind," the principal of an engineering college said. "We have no choice but to reduce or increase seats according to market demand."
Waning demand for IT grads has also resulted in fewer students opting for IT than before.
Till 2008, an industry expert said, the infotech industry was growing at almost 30% a year but after the recession growth has halved to around 15%. "The industry recruited 2.5 lakh candidates in 2012-13. Last year it dropped to around 2 lakh. This trend is likely to continue this year," National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), Chennai, regional director K Purushothaman said.
He said new engineering colleges come up in the country each year, so there are more newly-minted engineers. "This will add to the number of students failing to get employment after an IT degree," Purushothaman said.
Tech companies say things are quite different from a decade ago, but disagree on the need for colleges to cut back on IT seats. "Tech companies want competent employees," infotech professional Anand Sitaraman said. "Perhaps there is no need to increase the number of IT seats but, as far as the industry is concerned, there is no need to cut down on the number of seats either."
He said companies still receive job orders from the UK, other European countries and Australia. "There has been a drop in business from the US but demand for IT pros is still high," Sitaraman said.
After the internet bubble burst of 2000, the second great recession of 2007-2009 and ominous signs of a second bubble building up to critical mass in 2013 — when tech companies worldwide raised close to $13 billion in IPOs — there are fewer jobs in the market than there are IT seats in engineering colleges.
Colleges across the country are cutting back on IT seats, looking to surrender them and seek permission from tech education regulator All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to swap them for seats in core engineering branches.
Of the 26 branches of engineering offered, engineering colleges in the state this year have 12,242 IT seats, which is around a third of the 37,534 seats in electronics and communication engineering. IT seats also account for a little more than half of the 23,465 seats in civil engineering and 23,059 seats in electrical and electronics engineering.
Students of IT in their graduating year still appear for campus placements, only now they have to contend with students of other departments in a gloomy job market.
"The companies that visit colleges early recruit the most students," a professor at an engineering college said. "With colleges allowing students of all streams to attend campus placements together, IT students are forced to compete with students from other departments. And IT students lose out because they are only recruited by tech companies. Students of core engineering branches are recruited by tech companies and firms in other sectors."
Colleges constantly attempt to better their placement records. To have a sustained run at the top, they cannot have students who are not recruited at the end of a course.
"To ensure that students are placed, irrespective of branches, it is important that we balance strength across all departments with the market conditions in mind," the principal of an engineering college said. "We have no choice but to reduce or increase seats according to market demand."
Waning demand for IT grads has also resulted in fewer students opting for IT than before.
Till 2008, an industry expert said, the infotech industry was growing at almost 30% a year but after the recession growth has halved to around 15%. "The industry recruited 2.5 lakh candidates in 2012-13. Last year it dropped to around 2 lakh. This trend is likely to continue this year," National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), Chennai, regional director K Purushothaman said.
He said new engineering colleges come up in the country each year, so there are more newly-minted engineers. "This will add to the number of students failing to get employment after an IT degree," Purushothaman said.
Tech companies say things are quite different from a decade ago, but disagree on the need for colleges to cut back on IT seats. "Tech companies want competent employees," infotech professional Anand Sitaraman said. "Perhaps there is no need to increase the number of IT seats but, as far as the industry is concerned, there is no need to cut down on the number of seats either."
He said companies still receive job orders from the UK, other European countries and Australia. "There has been a drop in business from the US but demand for IT pros is still high," Sitaraman said.
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