Laying the foundation with innovations in engineering education

There is tremendous growth in the number of Engineering colleges in India in recent years. In 1983, State Government of Maharashtra allowed Engineering Colleges in private sector on self financing basis. At that time there were only eight engineering colleges in the entire state and all were funded by the Government. Now in 2014 there are around 450 Engineering Colleges. There is similar increase at the national level. This has created problems as well as opportunities. There are problems in terms of getting qualified faculty, quality of Engineers produced etc and at the same time there are opportunities in the form of employment generation, market for technology products etc. Industry in India complains that the Engineers generated by Engineering colleges are not employable. ITM Group of Institutions has four Engineering colleges located in Vishakhapattanam, Andhra Pradesh; Nagpur, Maharashtra; Raipur, Chattisgarh and Baroda, Gujarat. These colleges are started in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 respectively. Unlike old and established colleges, it is difficult to get experienced and qualified faculty and also the merit ranks of the students taking admission are modest. Thus to create good engineers and establish brand name in short time is a challenge. It was necessary to introduce innovations to achieve this. Under the leadership of our Chairman Dr. P. V. Ramana, we decided to introduce following innovations in Engineering Education at these colleges:- 1. Project Based Learning 2. Industry Partnership 3. Collaborations with reputed Universities and Colleges in US and Germany, 4. Guidance by Professors from US and Germany 5. Use of Technology.