COIMBATORE: Extending the duration of the MBBS degree programme would most likely drive meritorious students to engineering colleges, as has been witnessed in the recent past. In Tamil Nadu, when campus placements were at its peak several students, who had secured admission into premier Government-run medical colleges, had dumped their seat in favour of a BE degree course. “During the 2007 admission season, more than 100 students who were selected for MBBS had given up the seat and enrolled in engineering colleges including Anna University. The next year too we had nearly two dozen students following suit,” recalled an official associated with the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions. In 2009 too nearly a dozen MBBS students had joined BE degree courses. “Why would parents invest their hard earned money to educate their child in a medical college for over six years when there is no guarantee the he or she would start earning after graduation?,” an analyst asks. “These days one has to necessarily pursue a postgraduate specialisation in medicine to be successful as a doctor. All this is beyond the reach of the middle class,” he adds.On the contrary, a student, who graduates from a leading engineering college, is picked like a hot cake by Information Technology majors and multinational companies. “The offer letter is given just as he or she steps into the final year of college. They get a fat pay cheque with annual packages sometimes crossing the `7 lakh mark,” says a placement officer at a private engineering college in Chennai. Also, campus recruitment is no longer restricted to urban centres. At the beginning of the Millennium, big companies would simply refuse to touch students from the rural colleges irrespective of their talent and merit. “All that changed with the Tamil Nadu Placement Programme launched by the Anna University during 2004-05. Now even a graduate from the remotest college stands a chance of landing a job in an IT major,” he adds. Engineering college students are not burdened by mandatory rural internship as is being proposed for the medical courses. “Students these days want to be self-reliant the moment they enter colleges. You can’t expect them to have the patience to study for six-and-a-half years to get their degree certificate,” points out a career counsellor.
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