The success of Higher Technical Education in developed countries like the US, Canada, UK and others can be attributed to the close collaboration between citadels of learning and industry. This opens up many avenues and it is a win, win situation for the good of both and the country too.

Unfortunately,  in our country, there are no structured collaborative programmes between the industries and institutions. Though the end products of the institutions are absorbed by industries by way of on-campus or off-campus placements, the necessary support schemes to the institutions are not being extended by the industry. The result is the dismal performance of students in their placement efforts and in industries.

Every year lakhs of technical and professional graduate and Post graduate students are coming out of the portals of learning. This number is increasing every year thanks to liberal permissions accorded to private managements to start new colleges. On every such student, parents, governments - Central and State, institutions are investing considerable amount in terms of fees, books, transport, food, lodging, maintenance, coaching etc. The parents have a lot of expectations from their wards. The companies that give jobs to the graduate and Post graduate technical and professional students grumble about the quality and standards of these job seekers. They feel that they are not useful to the industry and cannot be put to a job immediately. Such selected graduates are subjected to in-house training for a period of 6 – 12 months as the industry feels that these freshers are not properly equipped necessary technical skills during their years of study.

Each company is spending considerable amount and time for imparting these training modules. The general observations are that the students are weak in their technical domain knowledge,
very poor in communication and other soft skills, deficient in their Human Resources and value system. These comments are commonly made by all Human Resources teams in almost all the colleges. The companies conduct written test, group discussion, interview both technical and Human Resources to evaluate candidate’s aptitude, attitude and their suitability. It is a pity that 80% of the students are not being selected in on-campus placement by any industry / company on some ground or the other. This large-scale rejection makes the students highly dejected and depressed as they invest their time, talent and treasure to get a technical and professional degree for a good job. The main plea of the companies in rejecting young job seekers is that they are not industry ready and much below their expectations.

In this context the following questions will emerge:

* Who is responsible for this?

* On whom should the responsibility be fixed?

* What exactly are the industries expecting from students?

* What skill sets is a job seeker supposed to   possess to be accepted by the industry?

Answers to these questions will make all of us think seriously for industry-institution rapport to prevent wastage of human resources.

The physical and mental gap between industries and institutions existing in our system is unnecessarily making the innocent students scapegoats. Presently, the students are cramming some theoretical concepts, theorems, definitions taught in class by the teachers. They are not being given relevant industrial exposure and hands-on experience on theoretical concepts. The practical classes, industrial visits, mini / major projects in which a student is supposed to participate are reduced to ritualistic exercises with make shift arrangements in many colleges. The seriousness with which they have to be taken up is totally missing. The management, faculty, students are to be blamed for this state of affairs. The evaluating examiners are also to be blamed as they cover the issue for some gain. The visits of inspection commissions of either affiliating university or AICTE are also reduced to a formality. Managements in some colleges to save money are not even arranging classroom teaching of some subjects. They are resorting to a practice of completing the syllabus by appointing a guest faculty in seven to 10 days. The students of such systems and practices naturally suffer from many drawbacks. Such ill-equipped students are coming out of these colleges and are not accepted by the companies.

The Ministry of Human Resources Development should workout a structured plan to remove many of the anomalies to see that the standard of education is enhanced in the technical institutions. It has to formulate schemes applicable with all strictness for industry-institution collaboration to provide hands-on experience to the students to make them acceptable to the industries   

The industries absorbing these graduates should extend a helping hand to these institutions to upgrade the quality of education. There is a feeling that industries are doing very little to these institutions in this direction. They can help the institutions in updating the syllabi, providing practical experience to final year students by way of mini and major projects, industrial visits, giving guest lectures, providing an insight on the latest trends and their expectations, instituting Endowment chairs / awards / rewards in the institutions. In a way collaboration between industry and institution is almost not existing in our country barring a very few exceptional institutions of national and international repute.

Of late some software companies realised this and started divisions / schemes for institutional liaison to identify good students early and train them. Even this beginning is not being attempted by core industries. The industries are utilising the services of best students of colleges / universities / institutions by providing them jobs and better pay packets. And they have been expanding horizontally and vertically raking in huge profits, distributing rich dividends to their share holders but doing little to the institutions that are providing manpower without which they cannot march ahead. They are also enjoying several incentives extended by both Central and State Governments in terms of getting tax holiday, procuring free land etc. A question arises in this context, as to What is the moral responsibility of these industries with regard to doing their bit to educational institutions? There is no answer to it. Hence, the industries are to take new initiatives, construct bridges of help / guidance with these institutions. It is not the money, but the expertise available in the industry that is more helpful to these institutions to upgrade the quality and standard of education in turn reflects the quality of the institution. The industries should not run away from social responsibility. The institutions should come out from their ivory tower approach, make clear advances to the industries and come out with a list of initiatives which the industries are supposed to take up. A bold and frank approach by both industries and institutions will definitely uplift the institutions from their slumber and make them active partners in the path of progress.

The first area in which the industries and institutions can collaborate is framing the syllabi of papers finalising the subject of study, practicals etc. The present stigma that universities and colleges are following outdated subjects / topics can be avoided only when the industries come out openly with what exactly they require. Only those papers / subjects that are relevant and suitable to the industry can be selected and included in the syllabus. The complaint that a student is only posted with outdated knowledge but not with present trends can be solved by taking the help of experts in the industry in finalising syllabi. This ensures updating of subjects matter.  Then only the students of the colleges  will be able to perform well in the industry.

INVITE INDUSTRY EXPERTS

At the beginning of the course, the industry experts shall be invited to exhort the students on the latest trends / development in the subjects, their employable potentiality, advanced learning facilities available in the country and abroad, about the on going research. This makes the students more motivated and enthusiastic in the pursuit of their subject.

Expert guest lectures on topics of interest by industry stalwarts will definitely supplement the intellectual inputs given by the faculty of the institution. During summer vacation and other holidays, the faculty of the college must visit and spend time in an industry to have first hand knowledge of how the industry is putting to use the theoretical concepts taught and their practical relevance.

The industries must look towards institutions to find solutions to the operational problems that crop up in the process of production. The institutions have experts to study the problem in depth and sold out the problem encountered by the industry because of many reasons cannot focus on sorting out source operational problems on their own. It is always better to handover the problems to the institutions having necessary wherewithal to suggest scientific solutions / alternatives. That will propel lot of activity to expand the frontiers of research in colleges relevant in modern times. Thus the institutions come to the rescue of industries in turn should come forward with liberal funding to the department / institution which in turn can be used for furtherance in future research schemes . This helps in providing financial assistance to meritorious students / faculty for having utilised their brilliance in solving industrial problems.

Exposure to industries and their products will ignite the spirit of inquiry in the minds of students leading to more innovations. Such knowledge of institutions and their work will definitely motivate some students to shape themselves as entrepreneurs. There is every chance of grooming budding entrepreneurs to become employers instead of employees, providing employment to many others.

In the area of mini / major projects to be done by the senior students, the industries can render yeomen service by giving them real time projects, so that the students can have hands-on experience. Then only the students will have real sense of satisfaction and achievement. They own the project they do and take it to its logical growth. The present practice of purchasing a project should be curbed to make the students committed and motivated to do an real project which is the culmination of his / her four years of study of technical course.

Providing summer internships to students is another area. This helps in motivating the students, understanding industry environment and practices, job profiles, projects they can undertake besides facilitating them to earn some money to be spent usefully in the next academic year / semester.

The closer co-operation between industry and institutions will enhance the chances of placement of these students as they are tuned and moulded as per the expectations of the industry. The industry experts may be sent on deputation to an institution for a period of 2 or 3 months to handle a paper. The explanation, exposition, and presentation made by an industry expert will make students very attentive and responsible as this will be done by a person who is actually working in the industry.

ASSOCIATE WITH INSTITUTIONS

The industry experts should be closely associated with academic bodies of the universities / colleges to inject practical concepts / processes into the curriculum so that syllabi can be updated periodically to keep it in tune with the industry needs.

In fact the industries located in a particular area should make a deep study of expertise resources available in the institutions located in a radius of 50 to 100 km, identify the departments / branches which are academically strong and sound, adopt such departments and branches of such colleges by extending all co-operation to those departments / faculty by way of funding a research project. It should be made mandatory that an industry of a particular size in terms of capital investment and number of employees shall be made to adopt an educational institution to guide its destiny. Hence, deliberate structured efforts are to be made by the powers that be like AICTE, NBA, Universities etc. to bring out this synergy by insisting on the efforts and achievements of each institution in this direction. Likewise efforts and achievements of an industry in helping the institutions in the areas mentioned shall also be assessed by the Department of Company affairs / other monitoring bodies. A certain percentage of profits of the industries shall be earmarked to chalk out and execute the programmes of industry-institution collaboration. The government shall also provide some tax incentive to the industries that are actively participating in the industry-institution interaction. Due credit should be given to this area by NBA, NAAC in conferring accreditation grades to the courses of study in those institutions.

The industry has to give a regular structured feedback to the colleges about the performance of its alumni working in the industry to enable the institutions to identify the areas that require improvement.

The practice of taking eminent people from industry as visiting faculty though some of them may not be having academic degrees / distinctions like Ph.D., is a welcome trend because their practical solutions, suggestions and interactions are of immense use both to the student community and the college faculty.

The industrial visits should not be made pleasure trips they should be taken with all seriousness to make the students to comprehend what exactly is happening in the industry. The successful industries can institute Endowment chairs / awards in an institution of their choice to perpetuate the memory of great scientists / engineers who contributed for the growth of human civilisation.

Many finishing schools are emerging to further train, equip and mould the graduates to make them industry ready. This involves lot of extra expenditure to the graduate students and also loss of time. With close co-operation between industry and institution the industries can demand what exactly they require from the students and their demands should be acceded by the universities and institutions. Thereby, from day one these students are made ready to shape themselves as per industry requirements. The expenditure on pre / post entry training given by different companies can also be avoided and the graduates can be put on project work immediately.

The list of collaboration areas is unending. One can innovate new areas. India is paying a heavy price for the total divorce between industry and educational institutions. Both industries and institutions should wake up, rise to the occasion, come together to create a synergy for higher industrial growth by maximising the performance of human input.