Lets have a look at the fundamentals by listing the definitions
Student : A person who is studying at a university or other place of higher education (or) Denoting someone who is studying in order to enter a particular profession
Engineer : A person who designs, builds or maintains engines, machines or structures (or) A person who controls an engine especially on an ship or aircraft
Customer : A person who buys goods and services from a shop or business (or) A person of a specified kind with whom one has to deal
Raw material : The basic material from which the product is made
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge ad principles related to the professional practice of engineering. It includes the initial education for becoming an engineer and any advanced education and specializations that follow. engineering education is typically accompanied by additional examinations and supervised training as the requirements for a professional engineering license. If a engineering student is treated as a customer in a consumer centric world where customer is the boss, then there is no control of who can get a engineering degree.
Only a few products are controlled by laws and rules as to whom they can be sold. Rolls-Royce cars are sold based on invitation from the company, who select the people who are eligible for purchase of their cars. This gives a sense of exclusivity that people crave and make them feel special. The car is just like any other used for travel, but the exclusivity is what costs the car several times more than its actual price. Other products that are controlled are high end technology goods related to weapons and other allied systems.
An engineering student who prefers exclusivity has to enter premier institutes by way of very hard work and his talents. the regular tom, dick and harry cannot enter register for an engineering course in the exclusive club of premier engineering institutes because only eligible people are customers for the institutes. When the institute selects who their customers can be, then the better analogy would be treat the engineering as a raw material who is screened based on the requirement for a particular process and then accepted or rejected.
After getting accepted, the student has to pay money for the services that the institutes offer. Here too the student is not centre of focus but the course and its contents are the focus. The student is put a certain process so that in the end, when he completes the several process pertaining to the choice he has made at the beginning. the education is and should always be content centric and should facilitate the student in understanding the contents of the course. Thus we have to treat student as a raw material who should undergo certain process and is verified for certain standards of quality and reprocessed as when necessary.
When education system starts to treat student as customer, then the requirements of the student will become prime focus. The system has to align to the needs of the majority of students. On an average, the students wants a easy time during the course and after a certain period of time wants a degree certificate. The system focus gets aligned in a such a way that education process is more oriented on giving degree to maximum number of students. Thus when the student comes out of the college after completing the course is found to be unemployable.
Each student is a raw material whose properties are to be with in a range so that he qualifies for the process. Based on the specific characteristic, the system should apply the appropriate additional processes to produce the engineer to certain standards acceptable to the next stage. The next stage may be job, business, research etc. Unless the focus of education system shifts from student centric to content centric and student being considered as a raw material rather than customer, there is no way forward. Big talks about advancement, development, innovation will be in the air alone.
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