Page 89 - EW April 2023

BITS Pilani: #1 ranking regained. Inset: Dr. V. Ramgopal Rao

dent admissions. Admission applications in the country’s It’s important to highlight that since 2016, Education-
3,415 engineering colleges had declined from 2.6 million World has been excluding the heavily subsidised and rou-
in 2012-13 to 2.3 million in 2021-22. tinely top-ranked Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)
Three years later, another expert committee headed by and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), preferring to
the director of IIT-Bhubaneswar, has advised AICTE to evaluate and rank the country’s Top 100 private engineer-
lift the ban citing an increase in “admission percentage ing colleges to enable 98 percent of students who aren’t
in engineering courses” in 2022-23. In its new approval among the 2 percent who top the IIT-JEE and make it into
guidelines, the council has mandated greenfield colleges to the country’s 23 IITs and 31 NITs. Our focus is on aiding
offer at least one study programme in emerging areas such and enabling this 98 percent to choose the most suitable
as artificial intelligence and machine learning in addition among private engineering colleges, some of which are rap-
to core engineering subjects. In sum, civil, mechanical and idly closing the IITs/NITs versus the rest gap.
electrical programmes apart, new engineering colleges will To compile the EW India Private Engineering Institutes
be obliged to provide cutting edge electives to students. The Rankings (EWIPEIR) 2023-24, field personnel of the Del-
recently promoted private Plaksha University (estb.2021) hi-based Centre for Forecasting and Research Pvt. Ltd (C
offers a good example of the type of inter-disciplinary elec- fore, estb.2000), our trusted partner ab initio — which also
tives greenfield engineering colleges will be expected to conducts our pioneer annual EducationWorld India School
provide. It offers computer science and artificial intelli- Rankings (estb.2007) and EW India Preschool Rankings
gence, cyber security systems, bio-systems engineering and (2010) — interviewed 1,213 engineering college faculty,
data sciences, economics and business. 1,366 final year students and 446 industry representatives
Against this backdrop of Indian engineering education countrywide.
set to experience a revival and overdue contemporisation These sample respondents were persuaded to rate engi-
of curriculums, EducationWorld presents its EW India Pri- neering colleges (of whom they had sufficient knowledge)
vate Engineering Institutes Rankings 2023-24 to enable on nine parameters of excellence — faculty competence,
higher secondary school-leavers to pick and choose the placement, research and innovation, curriculum and
most aptitudinally suitable private colleges for undergrad pedagogy (digital readiness), industry interface, value for
engineering education. money, infrastructure, faculty welfare, leadership and gov-

APRIL 2023 EDUCATIONWORLD 89