Recently, I came across a post on Twitter from Prof. V Ramgopal Rao, former director of IIT Delhi on how most of the students entering college want to get into Computer Science and related fields. In this short blog, I want to outlay some of the root causes of this phenomenon and provide a few opinionated solutions.
https://twitter.com/ramgopal_rao/status/1566428352398774272
In his Twitter post, Prof. Rao is spot on about the situation. High school students entering college want to get into computer science and allied fields as their first preference. In his post, Prof. Rao mentions that at every higher educational institution he visits, he finds the same pattern. He rightfully raises concern about this situation. The country needs all kinds of people in its workforce for all-around progress. In this, there is no doubt that CS engineers will play a crucial role but this cannot come at a cost of other engineering fields dying out. Prof. Rao goes on to explain the perception students have about other engineering fields such as mechanical being all about heavy machines. He points out that the current engineering problems require a highly interdisciplinary workforce to solve them. As a solution, he requests the authorities to educate the students to change this perception along with some outreach programs.
From personal experience, I can vouch for this concern. Recently, I visited my undergrad institution to give a talk to the undergrads. I was surprised to learn that computer science and allied branches which hosted around 200 students during my time now have over 1200 students and all other branches of engineering combined have been reduced to around 100 students. Now that is a worrying situation. Wouldn’t you agree?
Imagine you are a high school student who has worked hard in understanding complex topics and now you are wondering what topic will be best for you to pursue further in your engineering studies. Generally, your decision will be based on the following:
Now, you see that interest in a subject, that should have ideally been the only deciding factor is now accompanied by many factors. If other factors do not align, interest alone cannot fight this battle (in most cases). High school students these days are well aware of the finances, and the opportunities that come to a computer science undergrad when compared to others. So naturally, they will drift toward computer science making a compromise, even if they strongly feel about other fields of their interest.