You have been teaching at IIT, Madras and also in self financing Institutions at Chennai.  How do you find the difference?

Well, IIT, Madras is a centrally funded institute and since it has had and continues to have links and tie ups with German Universities, therefore has access to systems of German education, equipment, and also exchange of faculties between them.  Further, as you are aware, students are selected through an all India joint entrance examinations.  Faculties are highly qualified, and there exists an academic ambience.

On the other hand we have the self financed Institutions.  They mostly depend n the attitude of the managements – whether they intend to be a class apart or use them as family owned and run businesses.   Most of the professional colleges (be it engineering,
medical or dental –  not to talk about paramedical institutes like physio-therapy, nursing ) are all run by politicians or businessmen, because they were the ones who were in a position to invest, and they had the necessary clout.  This has to a large extent greatly affected the academic functioning of these so called self financing institutions.  This again cannot be taken literally, because there are some Institutions which are excelling in this field.  There are always exceptions to the rule.

There have been several changes to the syllabi of IIT’s and Universities in India, but somehow, most of the students still find it difficult to cope with their studies abroad. particularly, in Engineering?

Most of the Indian students to my knowledge have fared well.  If a student from India intends to study in Australia, United Kingdom, United States or Germany, it is imperative that his English language skills are much above average.

Secondly, these students going abroad should choose subjects of their choice, rather than accepting admission just because financial aid is available or given.

Our students must have a keen sense of concentration, to complete the course that they had chosen for their degrees, rather than thinking of spending more time for such programmes with the only aim of extending their stay abroad.

What would you advise students joining the first year of engineering in self financing engineering colleges?

Barring some of the well established engineering colleges in Tamilnadu, most of the colleges are facing an acute shortage of highly motivated, qualified and trained faculties. Further there is a mix of students gaining admission.  As a result of which there are a large number of students who fail in some of the First Semester University examinations. 

Reasons could be

Further most of the Engineering colleges  (barring some) are located 30 – 40 kilometers away from the city, which means that most of the students on an average commute about 1 to 1-1/2 hours each way from home to college and back.  This consumes much of their energy and on reaching home, he /she is totally spent up.  This also contributes to the inability of the student to perform well.  Some of the IIT’s and Universities are well located, the former being basically residential ones. For studying Engineering, in the proper way, is by doing a lot of self study