Indian engineers at bottom of BRIC layer: Study

A study by California's Stanford University has shown that among the four BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - Indian engineers are the least prepared to play a leading role in the global economy.

A study by California's Stanford University has shown that among the four BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - Indian engineers are the least prepared to play a leading role in the global economy.

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The study was conducted before South Africa joined the grouping that now goes by the acronym BRICS.

Written by a multi-national team, the study will be published later this year. In India the five-year research project undertook 7,000 student surveys and interviewed 40 institutional heads and engineering faculty face-to-face. The yardstick was improving quality, being cost-effective and ensuring equitable access.

Stanford professor Rafiq Dossani points out that China is well ahead of India in providing quality education in mass institutions and elite colleges.

"The spending per student at China's leading Tsing Hua University averages $51,000 (Rs 25.5 lakh) a year while spending at the IITs averages $8,000 (Rs 4 lakh)," he says.

Russia's advantage is a long-standing focus on science and engineering. Its population is not growing, so the existing pool of faculty is adequate, whereas India has to deal with finding a rapidly expanding pool of instructors.

In Brazil, the government is more like a consultant and financier while in India the Centre competes with the states to control the system, with the result that there is nobody to do important work on benchmarking and perspective planning.