Recently in the tweets of one of my friends (who is lucky to be a student in this bad times) I found that he is quite bored with subjects like economics,accounting etc. as a part of his tech degree curricula.Back in 1999 when I was a student I too had these subjects in final semester.To be very honest I rarely attended those classes and somehow did an exam oriented study to get a fair score.Back then we (my friends and I) found them boring too.Surprisingly, in some of the classes I attended I found that the teacher also expects it that way.One day the teacher was really surprised to see too many students in the classroom.... actually it was raining heavily outside.
As we entered our professional lives things started changing.My first project was development of a purchase management software which had backend integration with the enterprise accounting system.I had an initial struggle to understand few domain terms and basics of accounting in the initial days.Then I started to realize the need to get hold of the basics and started self study.While doing so I found these subjects interesting.I think there are two reasons behind that
- The books I was reading then presented the subject in much more interesting fashion than it was presented in college
- I had started to realize the need to learn these
Obviously this has something do with the industry sector you are in and role you are playing.But many of the engineering graduates moves to managerial roles at some point in their career.It is extremely crucial for them as well.Those who are pursuing pure technology oriented career, academics and research may not need this that much.But in a batch of engineering students that percentage (particularly in India) is not that high.If we have some idea in subjects like Economics,Finance etc. it helps us to understand the world around us better.Because it's money that drives everything around us - we like it or not.So over and above students will be benefited if they pay a little more attention to this subjects in college.But for that we need to
- First set the context properly and explain why these subject is taught?How it will benefit them
- Assign good and adept teachers who break the cliche of "Non Departmental Subjects" and present it in an interesting fashion
- Every good engineering student has a rational mind and scientific way of thinking.So if Kirchoff's laws,Law of Demeter seems meaningful to them so will Law of Diminishing Returns.
What else...Your thoughts....
