SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND AND PRE-ENROLMENT PREPARATION OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the socio-economic background and pre-enrolment preparation of the Bachelor of Technology students of Dibrugarh University Institute of Engineering and Technology (DUIET). The regulations concerning the student’s admission into technical colleges in Assam were also analysed. In this study, data was collected from a sample of 100 B. Tech students from the four branches of engineering offered by the institute. A descriptive survey method of research was used, and a closed-ended questionnaire was utilised to gather primary data, while the document review method was used to gather secondary data. The findings of this research revealed that a majority of B. Tech students of DUIET come from well-to-do socio-economic backgrounds, with 77% having parents with assets and nearly 70% of them having parents making an annual income of over 3 lakhs. The study also discovered that 52% of students had both parents working. The research, however, discovered that the students from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities were still underrepresented in the Institute, especially the female students. It was also discovered that the admission rules and regulations are the same for public or government technical institutions, but private technical institutions conduct the admission process under their own set of rules. Nonetheless, the study found that the Assam government reservation policy for seats in technical education applied to both public and private technical institutes. Future studies should build on this by extending to other technical institutions to see if the socio-economic patterns are similar.