Engineering is one of the most sought-after fields today in India and across the world. Premier technical institutes in India like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other renowned colleges have been working towards introducing new-age courses and a multidisciplinary approach to bring India’s technical education to a global excellence.
Despite the recent developments, many Indian students choose to move abroad for technical education. Experts and career consultants opine that the availability of new-age courses in abundance, flexibility in design curriculum and less competition in foreign institutes is the major reason behind this.
Computer Science courses remain popular
Computer Science and other allied courses are the most popular when it comes to Engineering and the trend is similar in foreign institutes.
Experts say that foreign countries offer better career opportunities for these courses.
“For coding-related jobs, the career opportunities in the US, and Canada are much better. Even if one is investing a lot in education, the initial packages they receive are also much higher for courses like Computer Science,” explained Sreekar Sannapareddy, Co-founder, Gradvine, an education consulting firm.
Apart from Computer-related courses, dedicated full-time courses for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics, which are still not so common in India, see a huge interest from Indian students.
Career counsellor Jitin Chawla explained, “Courses like Bioinformatics, Data Analytics, and Computational Linguistics also have greater demand in foreign countries as they are not that evolved in Indian institutes or don’t have good career opportunities.”
Chawla added that meanwhile, students seek courses like Automotive Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering and so on in foreign institutes due to very high competition for top technical institutes in India.
Physics and Biology-related Engineering courses are the next most popular when it comes to foreign technical institutes.
Jayaprakash Gandhi, education expert and career counsellor opined, “Biotechnology, Genetics, Bioinformatics, as well as Physics-related courses like Quantum Physics and Particle Physics are very popular because of great research and career opportunities in the US, UK and Canada.”
Flexible curriculum
The experts unanimously agreed that the liberty to choose one’s major and minor courses in foreign universities is one of the major reasons why students move abroad.
“In foreign countries, students can explore more interests along with the course of their choice. They can upskill and diversify with a wide choice of major and minor courses which are not yet available in India. In terms of flexibility, foreign institutes are definitely better,” said Sreekar Sannapareddy.
Experts added that a few subject combinations like Computer Science with management might also open a wide range of career opportunities.
“Students consult me because they want to pursue Computer Science with Commerce subjects or Arts subjects like Psychology, Management and so on. They get this freedom in several top global institutes. While India is also working on the same approach, it is less common and might take a few years to gain popularity," explained Jitin Chawla.
Countries like the US, UK, Canada, Australia remain the most popular destinations for engineering students because of their top-ranked technical institutes, good infrastructure and english-based curriculum.
