India produces too many engineers. An Expert Explains why it needs better ones

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently commented that a "mere degree" doesn't equip graduates for the job market. This observation, along with similar remarks by Telangana's Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy, highlight a growing concern over the quality and employability of engineering graduates in India. These comments underscore a structural issue within the country's engineering education system, which has expanded rapidly in recent years.

India's engineering education landscape changed dramatically after the year 2000, driven by a surge in demand for software professionals and the rapid growth of the IT industry. To meet this demand, India expanded the network of Institutes of National Importance (INIs), including the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), as well as thousands of other engineering institutions.

This expansion helped increase access to engineering education, especially in smaller towns and regions.

However, this expansion of capacity has not been matched by a corresponding improvement in quality across all engineering institutions. While premier institutions like IITs, NITs, and IIITs have maintained strong academic environments, faculty, research, industry links, and placements, many others have struggled to attract students due to an increasing concentration of demand in computer science, AI, data science, and related fields.

As a result, some institutions have seen thousands of seats remain vacant while others continue to expand popular programs.

The issue lies in expanding engineering education capacity without matching improvements in quality. Some institutions have achieved excellence by growing their offerings, while many others have merely increased the number of engineering degrees awarded. This widening gap between producing capable engineers and merely issuing degrees has become a structural problem that demands attention.

India's quality gaps in engineering education can be attributed to a regulatory and accreditation system that has largely focused on compliance rather than genuine teaching and learning. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Board of Accreditation (NBA), and National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) have implemented norms, standards, and assessments to ensure quality.

However, compliance with these regulations has often become an end in itself, with faculty spending excessive time on paperwork and documentation rather than focusing on actual student learning.

In the classroom, rote learning and examination-driven assessment continue to dominate, with curriculum changes often resulting in adding courses rather than improving pedagogy. Faculty incentives also tend to favor research metrics over teaching innovation, mentoring, and student engagement. This has led to a system that emphasizes quantity over quality and encourages non-credible research over teaching excellence.

While some top institutions have demonstrated that quality is achievable at scale, the overall expansion of engineering education in India has failed to keep pace with the necessary improvements in teaching and learning methodologies. As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) continues to transform the way students learn, the teaching equation has been further disrupted.

Traditional lectures, assignments, and examinations no longer provide the same level of value when information, explanations, coding help, and project support are readily available through large language models (LLMs).

To address the current challenges in India's engineering education system, a shift from documented compliance to demonstrated learning is necessary. Institutions must move beyond mere quantity and focus on delivering genuine teaching and meaningful learning experiences for students. This transition will require a reevaluation of pedagogical approaches, faculty incentives, and assessment methods to ensure that engineering graduates are truly prepared for the evolving demands of the job market and the era of artificial intelligence.