Cream On Top

India’s education sector is undergoing an overhaul. To start with, there is the new government’s express move to revert to the three-year degree programme, scrapping the controversial Four-Year Undergraduate Programme which has resulted in a confrontation between the University Grants Commission and the Delhi University during admission season, with the attendant last-minute muddle. Though the last word on the subject is yet to be out, the new NDA government is determined to clear the confusion the previous government has left behind.

This apart, there have been concrete developments which have the potential to change the professio­nal education landscape forever. With India coming under the Washington Accord, engineering courses and curricula are expected to see a qualitative jump, with an overall change in approach of all engineering colleges, big and small. They will expend more thought in refining their curricula and courses to meet a minimum benchmark set under the accord.

This is an absolute must, considering that India, according to All-India Institute for Technical Education estimates, has some 3,500 engineering colleges with more than 17 lakh seats. According to market data, 15 lakh engineers graduated from these colleges in 2013-14, a huge leap from the 6.5 lakh in 2012-13, thanks to government recognition to many private colleges a few years ago. Admission figures from three to four years ago show that 16-18 lakh engineers will graduate from engineering colleges this academic year, which number is estimated to go up to 20-22 lakh by 2020.

Against this, however, there will be just 2.7-3.5 lakh engineering jobs annually, unless the government jumpstarts manufacturing activity in a big way. Moreover, many fresh engineers are unemployable because most prefer to go to popular streams like computer science, IT and telecom. Unfortunately, the number of jobs in these areas has shrunk over the years while many jobs in power, infrastructure, manufacturing and electrical go abegging for lack of specialist engineers.

It’s in this scenario that Outlook’s annual ranking of India’s best professional colleges (in partnership with Drshti Strategic Research Services) could help students make an informed choice on the line of education across streams. Not much has changed in the Top 20 in the ninth edition of our rankings this year, but go down to the second-tier colleges, and you encounter a sizeable churn. The good news is that, thanks to a healthy participation across all streams, this year, for the first time, all nine streams have been ranked on the basis of the more robust objective-perceptual mix.

There’s a lot on offer. Apart from an illumina­ting report on the FYUP controversy, do read our package on non-IIT engineers ruling the corporate world. It is a seminal shift. Then, there’s an informative interview with Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, founder of Bandhan, which promises to make the leap from microfinance to banking services for deprived rural areas. Alongside, there’s a story on how a group of doctors have given up the lure of lucre to serve in rural areas. In the realm of law, some of our top lawyers talk of the most important cases they are working on.

With a gap between the number of professional gradua­tes and the number of jobs, it’s imperative to make the correct choice of both college and course. Outlook’s professional colleges ranking hopes to lend a helping hand to aspiring minds. As always, choose wisely.

India’s Top Professional Colleges

Outlook-Drshti Survey

Top 3 Engineering Colleges

1. IIT-Delhi
2. IIT-Bombay
3. IIT-Kharagpur

Top 3 Medical Colleges

1. AIIMS, Delhi
2. AFMC, Pune
3. CMC, Vellore

Top 3 Dental Colleges

1. Maulana Azad Institute, Delhi
2. Manipal Dental College, Manipal
3. Govt Dental College, Mumbai

Top 3 Law Colleges

1. NLSIU, Bangalore
2. NALSAR, Hyderabad
3. NLIU, Bhopal

Top 3 Architecture

1. Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai
2. Dept of Architecture, IIT Roorkee
3. Chandigarh College of Architecture

Top 3 Mass Communication

1. AJ Kidwai School, JMI, Delhi
2. Symbiosis Institute of Media, Pune
3. Xavier Institute of Comm, Mumbai

Top 3 Colleges For Social Work

1. TISS, Mumbai
2. Dept of Social Work, Delhi
3. Loyola College, Thiruvananthapuram

Top 3 Hotel Management Colleges

1. IHM-Pusa, Delhi
2. IHM-Mumbai
3. Welcomgroup Grad School, Manipal

Top 3 Fashion Technology

1. NIFT, Delhi
2. NIFT, Navi Mumbai
3. Pearl Academy, Delhi