Why are 96.7 % of Indians studying engineering?

kseeker

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I'll go to law/grad school and make fun of low class engineers instead.

Low class engineers ? You might want to watch your words Mr. Philosopher !

It's good that, you chose your own path; that doesn't mean, you run your mouth and speak of the subject you don't know in the first place.
 

A chauhan

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For money and prestige off course ! Though I know 2 engineers who have become school teachers.
 

kseeker

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Though I know 2 engineers who have become school teachers.

School teachers ? Why ? Because of their passion or they didn't get right job ?


And yes, there could be thousands of Engineers who are doing job which doesn't have anything to do with their professional degrees.

for e.g. few my own classmates are working as Sales Reps, Data Entry Operators, BPO executives etc.. though they being software engineers.


Getting a job in India even for Engineers is very difficult now a days...


A million engineers in India struggling to get placed in an extremely challenging market - Economic Times
 

Apollyon

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Totally agree with @atheisthindu. It has all to do with prestige and money. But if you're interested in Core Sciences better go for B.Sc in Phy/Chem.

P.S: Less then 25% of my classmates intend to go jobs somewhat related to their field of study. This is true for every core Engineering branch.

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2
 
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thakur_ritesh

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96.7% got me wondering, if that is the percentage of students of the total pursuing engineering then what are the rest up to? Fortunately it's a figure not even close, infact a figure at a meager 7% of the total!



Figures highlighting the breakup of students pursing higher education in India.

The above charts should give a sense of higher education courses being pursed, and possible career preferences.

The perception of most pursuing either engineering or medicine remains because this being an age old talk that these land you up with an "assured" job, and if it assists you with getting a government job, then a "secured" job, of course the added prestige that comes along and one landing up with a "good" girl, whatever that means! It's a stereotype that lingers on!

Anyway, time has changed and with the opening up of the economy, more avenues have appeared on the horizon. Heck back in days when I was with L'Oreal, believe it or not, kids from well to families, graduates from good institutes, keen to pursue courses on hair dressing, and I was surprised to see the extent people had moved in bigger metros, but that comes with access to information, and guess what, quite a few Indian hair dressers travel overseas to deliver lectures on techniques, and are hired by some top brands, this being just one such example.
 

PredictablyMalicious

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The truth is that most Indians are extremely risk averse. They cannot handle any degree of uncertainty over their future, and hence end up being miserable by jumping the gun. Also, most Indians are extremely docile and obsequious to their parents.
 

PredictablyMalicious

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96.7% got me wondering, if that is the percentage of students of the total pursuing engineering then what are the rest up to? Fortunately it's a figure not even close, infact a figure at a meager 7% of the total!



http://www.nistads.res.in/indiasnt2008/t1humanresources/t1hr1.htmFigures highlighting the breakup of students pursing higher education in India.[/url]

The above chart should give a sense of higher education courses being pursed, and possible career preferences.

The perception of most pursuing either engineering or medicine remains because this being an age old talk that these land you up with an "assured" job, and if it assists you with getting a government job, then a "secured" job, of course the added prestige that comes along and one landing up with a "good" girl, whatever that means! It's a stereotype that lingers on!

Anyway, time has changed and with the opening up of the economy, more avenues have appeared on the horizon. Heck back in days when I was with L'Oreal, believe it or not, kids from well to families, graduates from good institutes, keen to pursue courses on hair dressing, and I was surprised to see the extent people had moved in bigger metros, but that comes with access to information, and guess what, quite a few Indian hair dressers travel overseas to deliver lectures on techniques, and are hired by some top brands, this being just one such example.
Now look at the all the top students in India. I bet over 90 % of those end up in either engineering or medicine. India has no good philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, etc..
 

civfanatic

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45% of students are doing Arts? :facepalm:

Most of these "aspiring" musicians/singers/dancers will end up as fast food waiters too.

96.7% got me wondering, if that is the percentage of students of the total pursuing engineering then what are the rest up to? Fortunately it's a figure not even close, infact a figure at a meager 7% of the total!



Figures highlighting the breakup of students pursing higher education in India.

The above charts should give a sense of higher education courses being pursed, and possible career preferences.

The perception of most pursuing either engineering or medicine remains because this being an age old talk that these land you up with an "assured" job, and if it assists you with getting a government job, then a "secured" job, of course the added prestige that comes along and one landing up with a "good" girl, whatever that means! It's a stereotype that lingers on!

Anyway, time has changed and with the opening up of the economy, more avenues have appeared on the horizon. Heck back in days when I was with L'Oreal, believe it or not, kids from well to families, graduates from good institutes, keen to pursue courses on hair dressing, and I was surprised to see the extent people had moved in bigger metros, but that comes with access to information, and guess what, quite a few Indian hair dressers travel overseas to deliver lectures on techniques, and are hired by some top brands, this being just one such example.
 

kseeker

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The perception of most pursuing either engineering or medicine remains because this being an age old talk that these land you up with an "assured" job, and if it assists you with getting a government job, then a "secured" job, of course the added prestige that comes along and one landing up with a "good" girl, whatever that means! It's a stereotype that lingers on!

Couldn't agree more :thumb:

BTW, the charts indicate that 45 % of the Indians are more or less Philosophers ;)
 

PredictablyMalicious

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45% of students are doing Arts? :facepalm:

Most of these "aspiring" musicians/singers/dancers will end up as fast food waiters too.
Artists create and preserve the culture you barbarian. No wonder India still doesn't have a single national language, and none of the Indic languages seem to be evolving. No good linguists either.
 

kseeker

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Artists create and preserve the culture you barbarian. No wonder India still doesn't have a single national language, and none of the Indic languages seem to be evolving. No good linguists either.

Hold on comrade !

You are jumping on to the conclusions.

With just artists, liguists etc... you cannot run the country.

Also understand that, each and every subject tought in schools/colleges has it's own importance.

It's upto an individual what to chose from thousands of options available infront of him/her.

If everyone becomes artists, who going to do other work such as teaching, construction, agriculture :blah: :blah: :blah:
 

A chauhan

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School teachers ? Why ? Because of their passion or they didn't get right job ?


And yes, there could be thousands of Engineers who are doing job which doesn't have anything to do with their professional degrees.

for e.g. few my own classmates are working as Sales Reps, Data Entry Operators, BPO executives etc.. though they being software engineers.


Getting a job in India even for Engineers is very difficult now a days...


A million engineers in India struggling to get placed in an extremely challenging market - Economic Times
They didn't get the job they needed, this is true for all the streams, but it is sad to see engineers not getting proper jobs, as mostly the toppers opt for engineering.
 

A chauhan

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because of elders and parents , i will never give advice for engg to my known child
Actually majority of us are a victim to the tyranny of our parents :sad: be it engineer or anyone else, our parents directly or indirectly rule our choice for career options.
 

thakur_ritesh

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Now look at the all the top students in India. I bet over 90 % of those end up in either engineering or medicine. India has no good philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, etc..
A figure of 90% again looks way too wayward, please when you make claims, back them up with facts, or it's a vague discussion. Claims backed up add value to a discussion.

You are missing out on stuff like architecture, management, law, civil services/allied services, computer sciences, fashion designing, micro biology, finance, accounting, statistics, army, research, and a lot more, and believe you me, the top grade institutes in respective fields have the finest with them. Again, the cream gets divided and the bias shouldn't be either in favour of engineering or medicine.

The top rug of the cream mostly stays in India pursuing their studies with the finest institutes in respective fields, the second rug of this cream and the ones with affordability look for educational opportunities overseas with highly ranked universities, not generalizing, but it happens more or less in this pattern. Of the ones going over seas, as per the study by IIM-B, "Most of the Indians studying abroad are doing so at the graduate level, with the most popular fields being business or STEM-related (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)." Again shows, of the total, just a part of the majority pursuing engineering and medicine. Though focus being on those 2, but those alone don't add up to make the most numbers, but these students taking up such courses has to do with the perception that the finest jobs center around business studies or the sciences and its affiliates.

I am not able to get the exact numbers for these overseas students, if you can, please do.

About latter part of the point you made, "of no good philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, etc..", one, let's not generalize because there would be some good names in respective fields, the other, a lot depends on the curve at which the economy is in, the kind of opportunities it is springing up the most, and the focus of the government. If we are scoring less quality numbers there, then the reasons ought to be many beyond just the societal pressures.

45% of students are doing Arts? :facepalm:

Most of these "aspiring" musicians/singers/dancers will end up as fast food waiters too.
It's about what's on offer. if 45% of the total seats, or there about, are in arts stream, and not adequate infrastructure gets created for the rest, most would end up with an arts degree.

Today one of our biggest concern happens to be negligible numbers doing their PhDs, but that's because neither the seats are adequate enough, nor much focus of the industry on research. Infrastructure and opportunities it should come down to.
 

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