Facing problems, UIET seeks to drop integrated engg course
Panjab University’s integrated five-year integrated engineering and management programme appears to run into rough weather with the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) writing to the PU administration to discontinue the course, citing various reasons.
Panjab University’s integrated five-year integrated engineering and management programme appears to run into rough weather with the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) writing to the PU administration to discontinue the course, citing various reasons.
UIET director Renu Vig confirmed the development but said the varsity administration was yet to take a call on UIET’s decision.
UIET officials said the institute was faced by a number of problems when the program was launched in 2008. It had only two temporary faculty members to teach management courses with a regular teacher yet to be recruited. However, a more important issue was placement of students.
“When students go for job interviews at campus placements or elsewhere, they are told companies are looking for those specialising in engineering or management,” a UIET official said, adding even those students who were recruited were offered the same compensation packages offered to engineering students without a management degree.
“Companies prefer students who have cleared CAT before studying management”, he added.
UIET offers admission to ten students in each department every year for the integrated management and engineering course, which has about 70 seats.
“However, students prefer exclusive engineering programs and opt for integrated courses only if they do not secure admission to the former,” the official said.
The first batch of the integrated course was out in 2013. Keeping in view past experience of companies showing little interest, the task of placement for engineering graduates and integrated course graduates was assigned to different teachers, but the results were not encouraging.
A senior PU official said the prestigious University Institute of Chemical Engineering, which also offers integrated engineering and management courses, was also facing similar problems but had not decided how to resolve them.
“The institute had recently decided to put out an ad for recruiting a management faculty member but included a proviso that if the integrated program was discontinued the teacher selected would be reassigned to the engineering faculty,” the official added.