‘PEC to include research output criterion in faculty evaluations’

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Engineering College (PEC) will mark its centenary in 2021. One of the oldest and most reputed engineering colleges in the region, PEC’s glory has been lost to newer colleges, which opened in the last few decades, as reflected in various national and international rankings. TOI caught up with PEC director Prof Dheeraj Sanghi, who took charge only nine months ago, to know more about why the college was getting left behind and what his plans were to re-build the college’s reputation before it hits the centenary mark
PEC director Prof Dheeraj Sanghi said that according to him, the institute is now between 50-55 rank slab among engineering colleges
PEC is going to complete 100 years in 2021.What is your vision for the college and what would you like to achieve in the remaining time to mark the centenary?
Ideally, we need to reboot the system. With time, government universities have a tendency to go down. The quality of education that was present 20-25 years ago is not the same now. The facultystudent ratio has deteriorated drastically. The staff strength was always poor, but now, it is hurting us even more ever since we are on our own. Frankly, a lot of poor quality recruitment has also taken place. There is a lot of resistance to change. With all this, ideally, we should not hold fresh admissions for two years and then start with brand new programmes and new recruitment. However, this would be an ideal solution. What can actually be done and what we are trying to do is, at first, seeking help of the administration in recruitment of faculty. We have a dearth of faculty as the numbers have not increased despite a rise in the student strength. One thing the Chandigarh administration has done for us, is giving us the flexibility in faculty recruitment that colleges and universities under central government enjoy. Now, we have an option to hire more faculty in one programme as compared to other, in case we want to raise the bar somewhere. We have a sanctioned faculty strength of 162. This makes our facultystudent ratio 1:22, which is very poor compared to 1:12 of the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) or 1:10 at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). To make matters worse, 32 teaching positions are lying vacant. The good thing is that the administration has promised that they will write to the central government, seeking an increase in our faculty strength.

Why don’t we see PEC featuring in any national or international rankings when it was earlier counted among top engineering institutes?
I think people in Chandigarh had a certain perception about PEC being great. However, this perception was not shared by people elsewhere in the country. We can only make changes if we come to terms with the ground reality.
Where do you think PEC stands now?
In my opinion, PEC stood between 15 and 20 rank slab 20 years ago. Today, it stands between 50 and 55. I’m not looking at NIRF rankings that made us 78 because I think they have been unfair to us.
Why do you think the ranking has slipped?
Two things. Earlier, the perception was only based on teaching. There was no research. Today, the ranking is purely about research. We are not a research institution. We are a teaching institution. So of course we are low in researchbased ranks. The second reason is budget. If you compare the budget allotted to NIT Jalandhar since 2002 with ours, there will be a difference of Rs 2,000 crore. Give me Rs 2,000 crore and I will create the same infrastructure here. Our perception will also improve and rankings will be good. We don’t have the autonomy in hiring faculty as NIT Jalandhar does. If our sanctioned faculty is 162, I cannot hire a 163rd faculty member.

So is there any plan now to shift the focus to research?
The problem with research, for one, is that people who were recruited in 1990s or 2000s were hired primarily for teaching. To expect these teachers to suddenly become researchers is unrealistic. Some of them are doing good quality research, but others are not trained for it. Second, we don’t have the infrastructure. We don’t have the basic equipment in labs that other colleges have in large numbers. However, we are improving. I’m telling the faculty that research output and the funding they bring in through research will also be included in their evaluation for promotions. So there is some pressure that I’m trying to build. We are also increasing the recruitment of PhD students and it will show results in a couple of years. We are aiming for research money from various resources and government departments. Last year, we got Rs 3 crore, this year we are expecting it to go up to Rs 6 crore.
How is PEC contributing to the Tricity or to the region’s problems such as stubble burning?
PEC is helping the UT administration in traffic management, monitoring pollution and smart city projects. Smart city initiative was primarily started by PEC. Apart from that, PEC sometimes helps UT police in cybercrime-related cases. We are doing some things, but as I said earlier, we are not a research institution yet. The bigger problems will be addressed when we will have a research infrastructure. Still, our contribution is significant. We have a close connection with PGIMER. We have 3D printers and we have done a lot of research on how to 3D print body parts. We are among largest campus blood donors in the country. So we are doing a lot of things right now, and a lot will be done in the future as well.
You recently held your first international alumni meet in the US. What was the outcome?
The goal was to connect with the alumni. Somehow, we did not have a very close relationship with our alumni scattered across the world. Alumni support is going to be very important for us in the future in every aspect. For support, building a connection with the alumni is very important. If our alumni are at a higher position in a company, hiring our students would be a support. If they are at a good university, they can arrange a semester exchange program for our students. If they come to Chandigarh, they can mentor our students. But all of this will come to light when there will be a core connection between us. I went to the US to encourage them that these things play a significant role, and the trip has galvanised the support of the alumni. Now, I’m meeting a group of alumni every day. I think the emotional support will strengthen this way.
What are your plans to boost entrepreneurship and innovation at PEC?
Like every college in the country, we also offer deferred placements, initial funding, lab access to our students and so on. However, we want to go beyond this in giving facility to our students. The startup ecosystem in Chandigarh is slowly building up. We will try to do more and contribute to it.
Do you have plans to make any changes in PEC’s curriculum for students?
Absolutely. I think the curriculum around the country has seen significant changes in the last 10 years. PEC is assuming those changes never happened. We are stuck in the past while the world has moved on. Our curriculum is still based on philosophies that were prevalent 20 or 30 years ago. In terms of coursework, we teach more than even the AICTE recommendations, which are already more than IITs. Second, we need to recognise the importance of humanities and social sciences in education. Courses such as philosophy, sociology and design are extremely important to understand society and, therefore, so is designing products for them. As an engineer, I am supposed to be solving problems and thinking critically. Without these skills, all my other skills are useless, and the primary way to learn critical thinking is by studying literature or history. However, we don’t have these courses. From the next batch, we will have a new curriculum, which will be close to AICTE curriculum and reduce the burden of courses.
PEC has varied engineering courses such as aerospace and metallurgy. How are placements in these courses?
I think we need to look at the larger picture. Few months ago, when I looked at placements of aerospace engineering, I saw that out of 34 of our graduates, only two had gotten jobs in aerospace-related fields. My immediate question was, should we not close this program? Why do we need it if less than 10% people are going for core jobs? However, that turned out to be a very naïve statement. I later came to know that all those who were not getting jobs were pursuing masters in top universities around the world. So, the placement data needs to be looked into beyond the numbers. But yes, I certainly not happy with certain departments, and especially MTech placements.
Are you happy with the performance of students who pass out from PEC?
Even though we are not very well connected, we still get help from the alumni. Till today, I don’t have a mechanism other than social media to connect with them. It is shocking, but we are working on it. A lot of our alumni are doing well and even came to the ‘PECFest’ (the annual technical and cultural festival of PEC) as judges this time. Surprisingly, this year, the support of the alumni has been great for the PECFest as they contributed an amount of around Rs 5 lakh as compared to last year, which was zero.
How is PEC doing financially? How much more does the college need and for what?
PEC has a very small annual grant of Rs 52 crore. This year, I have demanded for Rs 100 crore from the government. If we get this budget, first of all we will construct hostels for our students. As of now, 67% of our students are living in various paying guests outside campus. If you come to the college campus at around 8pm, you would find it empty because majority of the students live in PGs outside the college. There is no problem of land to construct new hostels in campus. The only issue is money. I am hoping the college will get enough fund to tackle these problems.