This year began with the startling development within one of the biggest tech giants in the globe, Microsoft, as they named their third CEO. Satya Nadella's appointment as the CEO of Microsoft was a sure win for majority of India's techie generation. But his climb to the top gave hope to millions of students studying in private engineering colleges in India, busting the myth that only IITs' get the cream of the lot. This brought to light a curious trend shaping up amongst the youth pursuing engineering in the country.
Last year, over 310 students rejected the prestigious IITs to get into other institutes. Over 76 candidates withdrew their admissions from IIT-Madras, which was the worst-hit among all the IITs. IIT-Delhi was second, having lost 63 students, while Kanpur had the least number of withdrawals at 16. While most candidates who rejected their seats had been selected for streams such as mining, metallurgy, and biotechnology, in some IITs, even core departments like civil and chemical engineering had candidates withdrawing.
Another reason for this shift could be due to the placement telescope of the "old vs. new IITs". The general impression stands that the newer IITs function as an extension of the older ones and big companies still prefer to recruit from Bombay and Kanpur.
This generation is the one of smartphones and tablets; information is always at their fingertips. They are not to be lulled into the worm hole of brand names. This is also the reason why flipkart still rules the e-commerce battlefield even with the menacing presence of amazon. The current generation is smart and it is getting smarter by the day. The same stands to be a testament of the fact when we state that IITs are losing candidates when principals of private engineering colleges such as MSRIT can state that they are "recession-resistant."
Noticing the shift in the currents the team of Higher Education Review realized that majority of the engineering aspirants are taking to newer and more focused areas within the discipline of Engineering that private universities are providing so seamlessly. With this purview we developed the survey, "Top 50 Private Engineering Colleges, 2014" to provide assistance to the large community of engineering aspirants in India. Through this survey we intend to tighten the level of competence among the institutes and improve the overall architecture of engineering education.
In this issue we also bring you the cover story, MSRIT which has turned out to stand as one of the premier private engineering institutions in the country. The institute claims to have over 140 companies visiting the campus every year for recruitment amongst other jackrabbiting facts.
.png){kind=logo}