INDIAN INDUSTRY PERCEPTIONS OF THE UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE CURRICULAR OFFERINGS

The present study produces the profile of an Indian Engineering Graduate as perceived by Indian Industry, in relation to job requirements. It is based on a Questionnaire-based survey of the perceptions of a wide spectrum of industries, classified into manufacturing, and service sectors. The rating scales on which the expectations and availability of competencies have been ranked provide the quantitative information, which has been averaged over all the engineers employed in the two different types of industries. The analysis has resulted in the identification of areas of good match and mis-match, areas considered absolutely essential by industry, the areas with the largest mis-match and areas of minimum competency. It is found that the specific requirements of individual industries are quite varied, and are quite different from the averaged requirements. This shows that it is not in the larger interests of industry to expect tailor-made products to be provided by the Universities.