Shiksha Survey: Choice of Top Engineering Entrance Exams, Study Locations and Information Platforms by Indian Students

Shiksha undertook a nationwide survey of engineering aspirants to unveil what really matters to students as they prepare to fulfill their dream of studying in a good engineering college in India. Does the thought process differ among students from North, South, East or West India? Let’s find out.

Engineering remains a popular career choice with students in India. The competition for admission to a top college remains as stiff despite increasing number of seats across hundreds of engineering colleges in India. Even as new and trendy career tracks are open for students today, the race for a BTech degree continues in full force.

So, what has changed over the years? What really influences the choices students make when deciding on which engineering exams to apply for, which colleges to shortlist for admission and where to get reliable information from.

Shikha Survey 2019 gets you the answers to some of the most interesting questions that matter to engineering aspirants no matter where they are. Read on to know what students across the nation feel and also share your views, if you wish to make your opinion count, in the comments section at the end of this article.

Focus Areas of the Survey:

1. How many engineering entrance exams on an average does a student appear for?
2. Which are the popular engineering entrance exams across regions in India?
3. How does college location preference differ for engineering aspirants in India?
4. Which are the Top 10 cities preferred by students to study engineering in India?
5. What information do aspirants want the most while researching for engineering colleges in India?
6. What are the changing influencer platforms for students taking college admission decisions?
7. Which college representative do students want to interact with the most for admission related information?
8. What are the top concerns of students before taking admission in a college in a particular region?
9. What value-adds are students looking for from a college at the time of shortlisting colleges?

 

1. Average number of engineering entrance exams taken by students across regions in India

There’s a wide choice of Engineering Entrance Exams in India from national to state level to institute-specific entrance exams. To stay focused, one has to decide which and how many exams to prepare and apply for. Our survey reveals that majority of students settle for an average of three entrance exams to enroll for.

83% of the students in West & 80% in Central India enroll for 3 or less engineering entrance exams.

33% of the students in North & 29% in East enroll for 4 or more entrance exams

21% of the students in South enroll for 5 or more engineering entrance exams

 

2. Popular engineering entrance exams across regions in India 

While it's easier to decide on the number of exams one wants to apply for, the bigger challenge is in the selection of those exams. Apart from JEE Main and top state-level engineering entrance exams, VITEEE and BITSAT figure in the shortlist of engineering aspirants surveyed across India. These exams are considered important by students nationwide, along with a couple of other exams as mentioned in the bullet points below. Refer the graph below to see a bigger list of engineering entrance exams and their popularity among sudents across different regions in India.

North India: VITEEE, BITSAT and IPU CET are the popular entrance exams apart from state engineering entrance exams

Eastern India: KIITEE is emerging as a strong choice in addition to popular exams such as VITEEE and BITSAT

Western India: VITEEE, BITSAT and SRMJEEE are popular entrance exams besides JEE Main and state entrance exams

Central India: Private entrance exams such as VITEEE and BITSAT are more popular than state engineering entrance exams

South India: JEE Main is less popular in South compared to other regions. Students prefer exams such as VITEEE, BITSAT, SRMJEEE, AEEE and MET over JEE Main

 

 

3. College location preference (region-wise) for engineering students in India

Choice of location is a big consideration when choosing a college. Typically, students are likely to prefer studying in a college within their state or region. Our survey suggests that 90% of the students from South and West India want to study in their respective region. This no. drops to 70% for Central and East India for students wanting to study in their respective regions.

Students from Central India are happy to study in an engineering college within the region, but the region does not attract student interest from the rest of India. Especially, students from Western India showed no interest in taking admission in an engineering college in Central India.

4. Top 10 cities preferred by students to study engineering in India (region-wise)

The region-wise graphs below show relative popularity of top cities as voted by students based out of North, West, South, East and Central India as study destinations for engineering education.

 

 

 

 

 

5. Information students want the most while researching for engineering colleges in India

Compared to Shikha Survey 2016, the latest findings clearly denote a changing trend in student preferences over the past couple of years when it comes to looking for college related information. ‘College Rankings’ and ‘College Reviews’ are clear winners today in terms of importance accorded by students over other informational aspects such as ‘College Gallery (photos & videos)’ and ‘Student Life’ that were popular in the older survey.

Authentic or verified 'College reviews' given by students and 'College rankings' published by credible sources are considered critical information by students to help make informed college selection decisions.

Shiksha has more than 1.3 lakh authentic college reviews on its platform and a reliable integrated ranking mechanism to show college rankings released by established publishers, to help students find information that matters and is trustworthy.

The graph below shows a comparison between Shiksha survey findings of 2016 and 2019 for a list of nine parametres (starting with 'College Rankings' ) that students find useful when researching on college related information.

 

 

6. Changing trends of influencer platforms (other than Google) for students taking college admission decisions

Online media is gaining prominence as a convenient source of information. This is reflective in the comparison of our 2016 survey data, showing a decline in the growth of traditional platforms compared to online platforms over the last two years pointing to changing behaviour pattern. Students are now moving towards online platforms for exploring credible information.

College Listing & Ranking sites (such as Shiksha) and official website of colleges are the top preferences of students across India for sourcing authentic information such as College reviews, Fees & Scholarships, Admission details, College photos, and College related Q&A. However, in Southern India, family/Friends (word-of-mouth) is as popular as the College listing sites and Official website.

It’s clearly visible that traditional sources of information such as Student Fairs, Family/Friends and Print Advertisements are losing their sheen as compared to the more popular online options.

See graph below for comparison of how student preferences have changed from the year 2016 to 2019 with respect to various information platforms such as Listings/Ranking Sites and Official Websites, among seven listed below.

 

7. Top representatives of a college that students want to interact with for admission related information

As a source of authentic information, aspirants prefer to interact with current students of colleges to resolve their doubts and confusions. However, it’s not always possible to reach out to students of a college one is interested to know more about.

Catering to this growing student need, Shiksha has built a network of more than 1500 campus ambassadors across 800+ top universities and colleges in India, who address student doubts and queries related to admission in their respective colleges and courses.

Image below shows the options a student has when looking to gather information from a college representative such as 'College alumni' and 'Profs/Faculty', among others listed here. Current students score over all of these as the top choice of students.

 

8. Top concerns of students before taking admission in a college in a particular region

Students can have various kind of worries to deal with during the admission process. 'Financial requirements' is by far the most important concern of students across India except North and West where 'Quality of the teaching faculty' becomes a bigger concern. Most of these concerns are evenly spread across regions (as shown in the figure below).

Concerns such as 'Discrimination', 'Cultural diversity', 'Language barrier' and 'Student diversity' are of least importance across regions in India.

9. Top value-ads that students are looking for from a college (region-wise) before deciding on admission

A student has a wide choice of engineering colleges to choose from. What makes a certain college stand out as a better choice? 'Better Placement Opportunities', 'Skill Development', and 'Better Internship Opportunities' are by far the most important requirements of engineering aspirants while shortlisting their undergraduate college.

Apart from these, the region-wise survey also shows that students pay attention to aspects such as 'Scholarship programs', 'Work experience while studying' among other factors (as shown in the image below), while making up their mind about taking admission in a college.

Did you find this report interesting? Is there any point you wish to add that you feel would be useful and informative for engineering aspirants? Share your views in the comments section below.

Useful Links:

• Engineering Entrance Exam Calendar
• Engineering Courses in India
• Compare Engineering Colleges in India