Science displaces engineering at No. 2 spot in undergraduate stream

MUMBAI: With engineering losing its sheen, science courses have re-emerged as the country’s second most popular undergraduate stream. Arts has always had the biggest draw and that trend persists.

While 97.3 lakh students joined BA in 2016-17, 47.3 lakh chose BSc courses and 41.6 lakh took up engineering, HRD ministry data shows.

"Thanks to growing diversification with BSc courses in branches such as computers, electronics and pharma, science is no more a plain vanilla option. And an engineering degree is valued only if the student has passed out of a reputed institution. We often see an engineer competing for the same job as a BA or a BCom grad,” said Prakash Gopalan, director, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology. “Programmes are closing down and so are colleges. Piece all this and it speaks about the engineering education scenario. The word is quality. In times to come this trend may get pronounced if quality is not upped,” he added.

Choices exercised by undergrad applicants have changed dramatically in the past half-a-decade. Till about five years ago, commerce was second to arts while science and engineering vied for third spot.

In 2013, BA courses had 75.1 lakh students, followed by commerce, which saw an enrolment of 28.9 lakh students. B Tech had 17.9 lakh; BE 16.4 lakh candidates and BSc 25.4 lakh students, as per the HRD ministry data.

Then suddenly, commerce lost its appeal and was relegated to the fourth spot. In 2014-2015, engineering was the second-most popular course as the IT sector continued to account for mass recruitments.

The emergence and popularity of engineering saw this professional stream become a broadbased course like BA, BCom and BSc. In fact, as an expert said, even those aspiring to do business or a course like an MBA started signing up for engineering given the design of entrance exams for B-schools.

But now the proliferation of second-rate colleges has acted as a spoiler. Data from 2015-16 and 2016-17 shows science admissions are up while placements in engineering are dipping.