Efficacy of Indian Education Policies: A Study of Private Engineering Education in Delhi NCR

Our education sector is at a vital stage of growth. Engineering is the second most sought after discipline and enrolment in engineering accounts to 17.8% of the total enrolment in higher education. The number of engineering institutions doubled in merely five years, from 1, 510 in 2006 to 3, 390 in 2011. The main component in the significant expansion in engineering education is private institutions, which accounted for about 94 percent of engineering institutions in 2011. But with the expansion of the private engineering institutions there are numerous threats associated. The existing regulatory framework constrains the supply of good institutions, excessively regulates existing institutions in the wrong places, and is not conducive to innovation or creativity in higher engineering education. Thus, we can say that the higher engineering education system seems to be plagued with several problems-inadequate number of institutions to educate eligible students, poor employability of the graduates produced by the universities, low and declining standards of academic research, an unwieldy affiliating system, an inflexible academic structure, an archaic regulatory environment, eroding autonomy and low levels of public funding. The study is a summative evaluative research wherein, the detailed analysis of the policies/reforms taken by the government in the higher education sector with the special focus on the engineering education. The study is based on primary data (semi-structured interview with the heads of the engineering institutions) and secondary data (reports of committees and various commissions). The paper is thus a critique to the existing policies in the field of Indian Higher Engineering Education system and suggest ways to make it affordable, accessible and of best quality.