Facts About Taj Mahal

Enjoy our range of fun Taj Mahal facts for kids. Learn who it was built for, what the name means, how long it took to build, what it is made from, where it is located and much more.

Read on and enjoy interesting information and fun trivia about the Taj Mahal, a World Heritage Site often referred to as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.

• The Taj Mahal is a famous mausoleum in India.
• A mausoleum is a building that contains burial chambers (tombs) for the deceased, they can be large or small and are often created in honor of influential people.
• The Taj Mahal is located in Agra, a city in the Uttar Pradesh region of northern India.
• It was built as the final resting place for Mumtaz Mahal, the third wife of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.
• The name Taj Mahal means “crown of palaces”.
• Construction of the Taj Mahal took around 20 years, beginning around 1632 and finishing around 1653.
• The Taj Mahal is made of white marble.
• One of the Taj Mahal’s most recognizable features is a large white dome that is often called an ‘onion dome’ due to its shape. It has a height of around 35 metres (115 feet) and is surrounded by 4 smaller domes.
• The full height of the Taj Mahal is 171 metres (561 feet).
• The Taj Mahal is considered to be one of India’s most admired works of art, as well as a famous landmark and a tourist attraction that draws millions of visitors every year.
• The Taj Mahal complex includes a large garden, a reflecting pool, a mosque and other mausoleums.

Amazing Facts About India

• India is the world's largest, oldest, continuous civilization.
• India is the world's Largest democracy.
• India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.
• India invented the number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
• When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization)
• There are 300,000 active mosques in India , more than in any other country, including the Muslim world
• Sanskrit is the mother of all the European Languages . Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software - a report in Forbes magzine July 1987.
• Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.
• India has the second largest pool of Scientist and Engineers in the World.
• India is the largest English speaking nation in the world.
• India is the only country other than US and Japan, to have built a super computer indeigenously.
• India has the largest number of Post Offices in the world
• One of the largest employer in the world is the Indian Railways , employing over a million people
• India was one of the richest countries till the time of British rule in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus, attracted by India's wealth, had come looking for a sea route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
• The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982
• The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10th century, is the world's largest religious pilgrimagedestination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.
• Varanasi, also known as Benaras, was called "the Ancient City" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C., and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.
• Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.
• Yoga has its origins in India and has existed for over 5,000 years.

Indian Scientists Develop Seedless Mangoes

First came seedless grapes. Now, Indian scientists have developed what could be the ultimate delicacy - a seedless mango which is finely textured and juicy, with a rich, sweet and distinctive flavour when mature.

"We have developed a seedless mango variety from hybrids of mango varieties Ratna and Alphonso," V.B. Patel,chairman of the horticulture department at the Bihar Agriculture University(BAU) at Sabour in Bhagalpur district, told IANS.

Trials of the new variety, named Sindhu, are under way at different locations in the country but the result of the one at BAU suggests it could be suitable for both integrated horticulture and kitchen gardening.

"We are happy and enthuastic as well as confident and hopeful of improving the seedless mango variety," Patel said.

He said that an average fruit weighs 200 grams and its pulp, which is yellowish in colour, has less fibre than other mango varieties.

He said the trials of the Sindhu variety, originally developed at the regional fruit research station of the Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth at Dapoli in Maharashtra's Konkan region, has thrown up good fruiting on a three-year-old plant this year. It generally grows in bunch and the fruit matures in the middle of July.

BAU vice chancellor M.L. Choudhary said the university has, on an experimental basis, decided to recreate plants of this variety and make them available to Bihar's mango growers during the next season.

"The seedless variety also has good export potential. The university would provide quality plants to mango growers in 2015 to explot the export market," he added.

Patel said our trial has successfully established that seedless mango could be grown in local condition.

According to the National Horticulture Mission (NHM), Bihar ranks third in mango cultivation and covers about 50 percent - a little over 38,000 hectares - of the total fruit area in the state. The produce last year was in the region of 1.5 million tonnes.

Malda, Mallika, Jardaloo, Gulabkhas, Bumbai, Daseri and Chausa are major mango varieties grown in the state.

But, then, no longer will one be able to utter this Indian homily: "Aam khana hai ya gutli gin ni hai" losely translated as "Do you want to eat mangoes or count the seeds" but in reality meaning 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth'.

And, there are many who will lament being denied the pleasure of licking the seed clean of the fruit.

As they say, You just can't win them all!

Engineering a future?

Making good use of an engineering degree needs careful thought before and after making the decision

Looking at the number of engineering colleges in India and the number of engineers coming out of these colleges, the questions that form in everyone’s minds are, “does India need so many engineers?” Are they all employable? The negativism brought forth by such questions has crippled engineering education in India.

In this global era, rather than focus on India, the question should be whether the world needs so many engineers. The answer is a big, “yes.” Is there a need for scientists? The answer is again, “yes.” The world needs in plenty well-equipped, talented graduates with the right attitude. There are job opportunities for those who have the potential. In addition, opportunities for self-employment are also plenty for innovative and energetic minds.

Breaking free

I will look at the Indian education scenario from the point of view of parents whose wards are applying for admission to colleges. As the trend goes, most students would like to pursue professional programmes such as medicine and engineering. Since fewer seats are available for medicine, getting an MBBS seat has become extremely difficult and the majority is left with the next popular option—engineering.

Our school education system offers combinations of courses in the higher secondary level such that a student by choosing these groups can pursue engineering or medicine, even though these two streams call for entirely different aptitudes. The ideal higher secondary system would orient the student towards evaluating their aptitude and choosing to pursue one of the two streams. This would ensure that the chosen stream matches their aptitude. This is not happening now.

In the absence of proper orientation in the system, parents and their wards follow an inappropriate procedure while selecting their branch of study in the college. During counselling, we notice that the selection of a branch of study is based on the following: (1) The most sought-after branch in counselling, (2) The branch having good job opportunities as seen by the previous year placements, (3) Parental pressure and (4) Peer pressure.

This is not the right practice. The correct way will be to spend some time assessing one’s interest for a particular branch and check if it matches well with the aptitude one has and the chosen branch of study.

It is because of such practices that we face problems of employability and dissatisfaction in existing jobs, which can lead to high turnover rates, low productivity and increase in the stress level of employees.

Myth and reality

Having understood the education scenario, parents should free themselves of a few myths that surround them, and make a fair decision concerning the future of their ward.

Myth 1 One should be a professional such as a doctor, lawyer or engineer to be successful in life. Other degree programmes are not useful.

2 Marks scored in higher secondary are a true reflection of one’s intelligence, and the one who has scored 95 per cent is more intelligent than others.

3 Those who studied higher secondary education in vernacular medium cannot shine in professional courses taught in English.

4 Unemployment is high, so campus placement is everything.

5 An engineering degree in the most popular branch, with 8.0 CGPA and above will definitely fetch a job.

How to make the choice

There are some thumb rules to be followed in choosing an engineering education.

•The interest of the candidate and his/her choice of branch should be the criteria for admission.

•Every parent should orient the child towards finding out their natural interest and the aptitude for the particular subject or branch of study.

•Parents should avoid deciding for the candidate.

•For a strong-willed person, if the choice is made based on his/her liking and natural taste, then studying that branch will be the best thing rather than joining any other branch, for whatever reason.

•It is not wise to join a branch of study because it is popular or because the job opportunities are high.

•The choice of institution is also critical.

The other option is for the students to take the branch of study available in a reputed college and start liking that branch, plan well and work hard. What is critical is students’ interest in the branch of study and the efforts put in by them to equip themselves adequately enough during their studies.

Unskilled, unemployed, angry: Is India Tomorrow headed for disaster?

"India’s key to future success — its youth — is a ticking time bomb. It is a growing mass of largely undernourished, undereducated, unemployable young people who aspire for a better life but don’t have the means to get there. Why? Because they aren’t qualified for the job market, and even if they are, jobs don’t exist."

The above is the central thesis of a must-read Tehelka essay by Avalok Langer that demolishes the easy comfort of India's so-called 'youth dividend.' Where for decades, we have worried about illiteracy, we now have to wrestle with a new crisis in education: A generation of functionally uneducated Indians being churned out of a fourth-rate education system. They are functionally uneducated in a variety of ways.

Many in government and mushrooming un-certified private schools are filled with kids who can barely read or write, schooled by indifferent or unqualified teachers. The RTE rules that make it impossible to fail a child adds to the likelihood of millions of children who will fritter away their childhood, and in the case of private schools, their parents' hard-earned money.

Representative image. Reuters.

Children who do graduate with some modicum of an education are likely to fall into the next booby trap: spurious management and engineering colleges. Langer offers the example of Sharana: “I always wanted to take up engineering. I had done a diploma course after completing Class X, but there was no scope for employment at that stage so I kept studying. Six years later, after having a degree, I found that there is still no scope for employment." He ended up instead as a developer earning around 8,000 a month in Bangalore -- which is on par with the average salary of a household driver.

Sharana is one of the many canaries who foretell a gargantuan national crisis in the offing: when the aspirations of young India encounter the disillusioning reality of 'new' India.  This impending crisis is all the more poignant as it comes in the midst of a large-scale transformation of the education system, be it national experiments like the Right To Education Act or local intitatives such as Delhi University's proposed shift to a US-style 4-year Bachelor's degree. The changes are dramatic but also ad hoc, uncoordinated, under-resourced, and executed with little attention to potential consequences.

Lanker diagnoses the problem thusly:

The scary thing is, unlike physical capital or infrastructure, you cannot throw money at human capital. Human capital, skills and education levels are built generationally and if you have a bad system, you are going to lose a generation. There are four main faults with our education system — outdated and rigid syllabi; an educational structure with a ‘final exam’ fixation; failure of the vocational training set-up; and most importantly, teachers and their pedagogy.

And he goes on to offer solutions to each of the listed shortcomings (I urge you to readhis essay which is excellent and required reading.) Many are worthwhile but he does not consider perhaps one American institution that may serve us better than that 4-year DU degree, ie the community college.

All aspiration, no vocation

Today in India there are supposedly three safe paths to professional success: engineering, management and medicine. This thesis is unquestioningly embraced by all aspiring parents, from shopkeepers to maids to urban professionals. These are also most expensive and fiercely competitive fields of specialisation and yet increasingly lead to an employment dead-end. As Lanker notes: "Some 200 management schools have shut down in the past few years due to poor placement. Of the 1.5 million engineering students in India, over 70 percent are unemployed. The IT sector has also suffered, with 75 percent of graduates going unemployed."

So what is to become of the lower middle class kids who are in engineering and management tracks who went to Kannada-medium schools like Sharana? Or the son a janitor who is likely to end up jobless after his parents pay through their nose for a private school, and perhaps a B.Com degree after? There are plenty of jobs out there, but they have not been trained for them.

This is partly the fault of a blinkered Indian mindset. As Surjit Bhalla, chairman of Oxus Investments, tells Lanker “People want to do computer engineering and not textile engineering. That is not going to work in India because that field is already saturated. We need to look at things that can create employment.”

This is also the reasoning for the DU 4-year degree which supposedly offers "application courses" closely tailored to the needs of India Inc. But here's the catch: Students don't specialise until the third year. On the other hand, they can drop out after two years of general education -- foundational courses in everything from Computer Science to Geography -- with a liberal arts diploma that will qualify its holder (at best) for a primary school teaching job.

In contrast, the community college model puts the cart where it belongs -- behind the horse. Students can earn a two-year specialised diploma, closely tailored to industry needs, and still retain the option of going on to a four-year degree. DU, for instance, could set up a parallel network of community colleges and offer third year seats to the highest achievers. But those who prefer to opt for a two-year diploma will be armed with a degree that ensures a decent job -- unlike the 30-40 percent who presently just drop out.

Thinking small

The national discourse of aspiration is driven entirely by the IIM/IIT fantasy. All the messages we receive insist that all of us can and should devote our lives racing up the engineering/management track. All this 'think big' mumbo-jumbo has obscured the real opportunities for mobility at hand.

Construction and manufacturing are just some of the large-scale sectors where there is an alarming shortage in skilled labour. Construction companies, for example, were forced to import labour from China to complete the planned Commonwealth Games projects. As an Economic Times op-ed notes, "Already, wages for vocationally-trained workers have risen faster in some moderately skill-intensive sectors, such as construction, than for workers without training. Increasing use of capital - through automation and IT - and shifts in employment towards knowledge-intensive jobs will drive higher skill demand than India is equipped to supply."

We will have the jobs but not the labour to perform them, according to the Financial Times:

But what worries many Indian business executives, economists and policymakers is whether the country’s economy can absorb the masses of aspiring workers, mainly from poor rural areas and with little or no training. While nearly 13m young Indians are entering the workforce every year, India’s vocational training system has the capacity to train just 3.1m a year. Many young people lack even rudimentary skills.

“We do not have people who are actually functionally literate,” says [analyst Laveesh] Bhandari. “Most of our labour force is inappropriate for the mass manufacturing practices that China has excelled at.”

Then there is the largely informal services sector which is expanding at an exponential rate. The growing pool of urban professionals with more money than time are eager to hire skilled electricians, plumbers, tailors, cleaners, and carpenters but these trades remain poorly trained and organised. As are the staff of restaurants, hotels, spas, and salons which are rapidly multiplying.  As spiraling consumerism spreads to tier two and three cities, it will continue to pump up the demand for skilled service professionals.

It would be good news except only 10 percent of Indians between the ages of 15-29 receive formal vocational training.

One way to train them is to create a nationwide network of affordable community colleges with courses and diplomas closely tailored to the skilled labour market. Better yet, we can tailor these "colleges" to local needs, creating opportunities where people live, which in turn will stem the mass and unsustainable migrations to the big cities. In rural areas, where poor children are forced to drop out at a very early age, vocational training can be incorporated into post-elementary education.

“The largescale sector will grow but not as much as we hoped," Economic development expert Amitabh Kundu tells Tehelka, "The 430 million that comprise our labour force are not very well skilled. We should absorb them in small towns by giving them skills that allow them to improve their productivity in the small-scale sector.”

In other words, our biggest plans will require us to think local, and think small.

We are a nation addicted to cheap, unskilled labour which lulls us into complacency by its sheer plenitude. By 2030, Indians of working age -- between 15-59 -- will constitute 65 percent of the population and the world's largest labour market. And the world's largest pool of angry, disillusioned unemployed workers, if we continue down this catastrophic course. There is no greater fuel to the fire of social unrest than a thwarted revolution of rising expectations.

A million engineers in India struggling to get placed in an extremely challenging market

Somewhere between a fifth to a third of the million students graduating out of India's engineering colleges run the risk of being unemployed. Others will take jobs well below their technical qualifications in a market where there are few jobs for India's overflowing technical talent pool. Beset by a flood of institutes (offering a varying degree of education) and a shrinking market for their skills, India's engineers are struggling to subsist in an extremely challenging market.

According to multiple estimates, India trains around 1.5 million engineers, which is more than the US and China combined. However, two key industries hiring these engineers -- information technology and manufacturing -- are actually hiring fewer people than before.

For example, India's IT industry, a sponge for 50-75% of these engineers will hire 50,000 fewer people this year, according to Nasscom. Manufacturing, too, is facing a similar stasis, say HR consultants and skills evaluation firms.

According to data from AICTE, the regulator for technical education in India, there were 1,511 engineering colleges across India, graduating over 550,000 students back in 2006-07. Fuelled by fast growth, especially in the $110 billion outsourcing market, a raft of new colleges sprung up -- since then, the number of colleges and graduates have doubled.

Job Problems...

Jobs have, however, failed to keep pace. "The entire ecosystem has been built around feeding the IT industry," says Kamal Karanth, managing director of Kelly Services, a global HR consultancy.

"But, the business model of IT companies has changed...customers are asking for more. The crisis is very real today." Placement numbers across institutes -- including tier-I colleges such as IIT Bombay -- have mirrored these struggles.

In 2012-13, in IIT Bombay, a total of 1,501 students opted to go through the placement process. At the time of writing, only 1,005 had been placed (placements are currently underway in the institute).

In 2011-12, 1,060 of the 1,389 students were placed. Further down the pecking order, at the Amity School of Engineering and Technology, placements are muted. The number of companies visiting is down from 86 last year to 67 in 2013 at the time of writing (placements are currently underway).

Batch sizes have reduced drastically at its Noida campus this year, with 365 students placed so far in a batch size of 459, compared to 1,032 being placed in a batch size of 1,160 last year.

"Some companies have delayed the joining dates of students who passed out last year and they are still waiting to be placed," says Ajay Rana, director, Amity Technical Placement Centre. "We can expect joining dates of students who passed out this year to be deferred by a minimum of six months."

...Trickle Down

This muddled equation is now showing signs of social and economic strain across the country. Frustrated engineers are taking jobs for which they are overqualified and, therefore, underpaid.

A few exceptions have even turned to crime. According to media reports, Manjunath Reddy, a civil engineer, turned to chain snatching in Thane, a suburb of Mumbai, to support his young family. While he used some money to buy a small flat in peripheral Mumbai, his failure to net a job drove him to crime, he told the police when caught.

Like him, another engineer in Aurangabad turned to car lifting as a route to easy money. "The social aspect of this massive under-employment and unemployment will soon be witnessed," warns Pratik Kumar, HR chief of Wipro and chief executive of its infrastructure engineering unit.

Hiring is slowing down because recruiters are changing their strategy. "An engineering degree is a poor proxy for your education and employment skills," says Manish Sabharwal, chairman of TeamLease, a temp staffing firm.

"The world of work is evolving... employers increasingly don't care what you know, they focus on what you can do with that knowledge." While dozens of new institutes have been established in the past six or eight years, he claims that over a third of them are empty and perhaps they are "worth more dead (for the real estate they sit on) than alive."

A global economic slowdown may have only worsened what is already a bad problem, say others such as Amit Bansal, co-founder of Purple Leap, a skills assessment firm, which routinely gauges the capabilities of students across these institutes.

"Even without this slowdown, there are a large number of students who won't get a job," he says. Bansal estimates that, at best, there are 150,000-200,000 jobs generated annually in the Indian economy and far too many engineers attacking this labour pool.

What's more, India's technical talent pool is also warped, with almost the same number of engineers as technical graduates from institutes such as ITI. "In developed markets, there is usually one engineer for every ten," says Bansal. This skew is only compounding the woes of engineers in India.

Does India produce 100 times as many engineering graduates as the UK?

Concerns about the number of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) graduates have been a regular feature of political debate in recent year, in many cases linked to wider worries about the competitiveness of the UK economy.

Making the latest contribution to the debate, Sir James Dyson, engineer and inventor of the vacuum cleaner that bears his name, told the Daily Telegraph that India is now producing one hundred times as many engineering graduates each year as Britain:

“[Britain] produced 12,000 engineering graduates a year … India produces 1.2m engineering graduates a year. The Philippines produces more than us, so does Iran, so does Mexico. It’s not a sustainable situation.”

While the UK’s population is only a fraction of India’s, (roughly 1/20th) can it really be right that India produces one hundred times as many engineering graduates?

We find that Britain does produce in the region of 12,000 home engineering graduates each year when we look at undergraduate degrees alone – but other claims made may be less supported.

Number of UK engineering undergraduates

According to Sir James, Britain produced 12,000 engineering graduates last year. When asked for the source of this figure, Dyson’s press office pointed us to a September 2011 report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE),which suggests that there were 11,800 engineering graduates in 2010.

The report gives no source for the figure, but they’re likely to come from the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA). Figures from here, quoted in industry body Engineering UK’s 2013 report, suggest the number of graduates is higher than this, with almost 20,000 first degrees awarded in engineering in 2010/11. 

These figures include international students, as well as those from the UK. If we take Sir James’s description of Britain as “producing” engineering graduates as just referring to UK residents, we get a smaller number.

Of the almost 20,000 first degrees awarded in 2010/11, ‘home’ students accounted for just short of 13,000:

This only considers first degrees, however.

Number of postgraduates

When we consider those completing doctorates and other postgraduate degrees the numbers increase again. Looking at only those domiciled in the UK, some 4,000 postgraduate degrees excluding doctorates and PGCEs (referred to just as postgraduate degrees from this point forward) were awarded in 2010/11, together with around 800 doctorates.

In total the UK had more than 17,700 UK-domiciled graduates of at least first degree level potentially available to enter employment in 2010/11.

We should bear in mind, of course, that not all those who train in engineering will go on to work in the sector, with a report from the Royal Academy of Engineering last year suggesting that 26% of engineering graduates take jobs outside of the science, engineering and technology fields.

There might also be some movement in the opposite direction, as some non-engineering graduates will end up working in roles that are related to the industry.

How the UK compares to India

Sir James claimed that India produces 1.2 million engineering graduates a year, but at the time of writing Dyson had not provided a solid source for this figure, and we were unable to track it down ourselves.

According to the Indian trade association NASSCOM, almost 800,000 people completed technology or engineering graduate programmes in 2010 - some way short of Sir James’s 1.2 million graduates. This number also includes graduates of computer science and several other types of technology course, which don’t feature in the UK figures. Looking at engineering graduates only, India produced just short of 500,000 of these in 2010 (excluding electrical engineers), according to the figures.

It should be noted that other sources do suggest considerably higher numbers, either now or in the near future. An Ernst and Young report put the number of enrolments onto engineering courses in 2009/10 at just over 1.5 million, based on figures from the Indian University Grants Commission. This means we might expect graduations in 2014 to exceed at least one million.

There’s also some discussion about whether quantity of graduates alone is a good metric. Some groups, including Engineering UK, have suggested that quality of graduates is another factor that needs to be considered.

Sir James’ claim difficult to substantiate

Overall it seems that the UK does produce around 12,000 engineering graduates per year (12,865 in 2010/11) if by produced, we mean that the UK has trained up (to undergraduate degree level) this number of domiciled engineers. If we take doctorates and other postgraduate qualifications awarded to UK-domiciled students into account, the numbers are higher at 17,705 in 2010/11.

While it’s tricky to make direct international comparisons, the suggestion that India produces one hundred times more engineering graduates is at least contentious. It goes against a Royal Academy of Engineering report last year that put the figure at eight times, while other sources suggest a number of Indian graduates that would give a figure closer to one hundred times.

In any case, we should also be asking whether numbers alone fully address the issue. When it comes to the employability of graduates, groups like Engineering UK have devised measures that take into account more than just graduate numbers but also employers’ perceptions of graduate quality.

Top 10 Engineering Colleges in the World

Engineering is something that has penetrated each and every aspect of our life and with the increasing progress of technology, this penetration would constantly increase. When it comes to the best engineering colleges of the world, the competition is quite tough. However, usually the top of the list is occupied by renowned names which are discussed below:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT:- In almost all of the lists discussing quality engineering schools in the world, MIT is usually at the top. The research accomplishments of MIT, the high class of its faculty and the tradition of excellence have made this engineering institute a standard of brilliance when it comes to engineering. The university was established in 1861.
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• California Institute of Technology:- Located in Pasadena, California and famously known as Caltech, this university is highly selective when it comes to undergrad students and is famous for producing highly competitive and research oriented students.
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• Stanford University:- Stanford has become a synonym of quality engineering education and research throughout years. Having a highly competitive undergrad curriculum, the university is certainly among the elite engineering colleges of the world. Stanford University is located in Palo Alto, San Francisco.

• University of California, Berkeley:- The undergrad engineering courses offered at Berkeley are considered to be among the very best in the world that explains the high level of research conducted at the university. The number of undergrad students at Berkeley is nearly 3000 which is one of the highest among the top engineering colleges.

• University of Cambridge:- University of Cambridge is the second oldest university in the United Kingdom and the seventh oldest university throughout the world. Having produced a wide range of scientists, engineers and philosophers, the university offers a variety of engineering disciplines at undergrad as well as graduate and post-graduate levels.

• University of Oxford:- Oxford is the oldest university in the United Kingdom and is widely considered to be a symbol of excellence. Although it is a general perception that humanities disciplines offered at Oxford are higher in quality compared to engineering disciplines, the engineering studies at Oxford are no less in brilliance. Oxford and Cambridge are the two British institutes that are almost always included in at the top end of the lists showcasing best engineering colleges of the world.

• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich:- Widely considered to be the best university in the continental Europe, ETH is located in Zurich. The university has a long history of excellence in the field of science and engineering, with 21 of its students and professors being awarded Nobel Prize in past, among them Albert Einstein included.

• Georgia Institute of Technology:- Commonly known as Georgia Tech, this university was founded in 1885 and is located in Atlanta, Georgia. The university has been offering courses in a variety of engineering disciplines ever since the beginning of the twentieth century.

• Imperial College, London:- Imperial College became an independent educational institute in 2007, before which it was a part of Federal University of London. Having a long history of Nobel Laureates and famous scientists, this college is widely considered among the very best engineering colleges in the world.

• University of Texas at Austin:- Shortly known as UT Austin, this university was established in 1883 and is located in Austin, Texas. UT Austin is among those universities of the US that have the largest enrollment of undergrad students. Various engineering disciplines are being offered at the university and the quality of those disciplines is self-evident.

Top 10 Engineering Institutes Abroad

Have you lately been dreaming about seeking admission in a world-renowned engineering college? You
need to work hard if the target is to get admission in among the best of global engineering or
technical universities, as the level of competition is high. From academic excellence to technical
research, some top engineering colleges have always made impact for their supreme quality and
popularity. There are many top engineering colleges and institutes in the world where getting admission
is a dream-come-true experience for many aspirants. You can get admission if the level of hard work is
there.

Top 10 Global Engineering Institutes   

1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States- It’s among the oldest and
most reputed engineering and technology institutes in the world. It’s 150-years old and known for its long
list of Nobel laureates which has been produced here on a regular basis. MIT has no equal in terms
of academic excellence and global exposure in terms of innovation and technology.

2) California Institute of Technology, United States- It is another very renowned engineering
and technical institute which holds its reputation intact in its around 100-years of existence.
Besides a sprawling campus, high-end facilities and focus to innovation, it’s also known for producing
Noble Laureates on a regular basis in different domain of technological excellence.

3) Princeton University, United States- it’s not only the best of engineering institutes of USA, but
also among the best globally. It offers many Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in engineering where
an impressive student and teacher ratio is maintained. It also stands out for consistently giving
Nobel Laureates in various engineering domains over the years.

4) University of California, Berkeley, United States- It’s among the oldest existing engineering
institutes in the USA, and among the most reputed as well. Besides the centre of many innovation and
path-breaking discoveries in science and technology, it is also known globally for its many Nobel
Laureates.

5) Stanford University, United States- It features among the most selective universities of USA,
and known for its globally-famous alumni who went on to form the giants like Google and HP.

6) University of Cambridge, United Kingdom- It is surely among the most celebrated engineering
or technical institutes in the world for its luminary   alumni like Newton, Rutherford, Darwin, Turing,
Watson and Crick.

7) University of Oxford, United Kingdom- It’s among the oldest and most popular institutes in the
world for its academic, technical and alumni brilliance. 

8) University of California, Los Angeles, United States - It’s among the best engineering and
technical universities in the world.

9) ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Switzerland- Besides its
academic brilliance, it’s also popular for being the institute where Einstein once studied.

10) Imperial College London, United Kingdom- This 100-years old institute is known for its
string emphasis to research and innovation.

Top 20 Countries In Engineering Based On Citations

Ranked by Citations Rank       Field Papers Citations Citations Per Paper 1 USA  202,141 1,115,430 5.52 2 JAPAN  66,882 237,154 3.55 3 GERMANY  46,643 231,381 4.96 4 ENGLAND  47,910 227,272 4.74 5 PEOPLES R CHINA  64,435 201,881 3.13 6 FRANCE  38,455 186,951 4.86 7 CANADA  34,015 149,229 4.39 8 ITALY  33,372 146,901 4.4 9 TAIWAN  27,786 96,036 3.46 10 SOUTH KOREA  30,013 91,955 3.06 11 SPAIN  21,025 88,569 4.21 12 AUSTRALIA  17,407 81,127 4.66 13 NETHERLANDS  13,727 74,175 5.4 14 INDIA  23,382 68,534 2.93 15 SWITZERLAND  10,481 67,600 6.45 16 RUSSIA  22,847 58,059 2.54 17 SWEDEN  10,608 57,944 5.46 18 BELGIUM  8,999 49,792 5.53 19 SINGAPORE  11,744 48,797 4.16 20 TURKEY  11,962 41,586 3.48

Top 5 Best Countries To Study Engineering

USA

What makes USA a favourable destination to study engineering? A vibrant Indian community, some of the top-ranking institutes and English as the medium of instruction make USA extremely attractive for Indians. Good placement options also draw many students. The year 2011 had about 103,260 students in USA for higher education. That was a growth of 8,697 students from the previous year! Says Sowriranjan Sampath, an engineer with a leading MNC in US, “After completing engineering from the US, it was not very difficult to find a job and settle down here. The presence of many Indian students and some faculty members on campus works as a boon for Indian students. You rarely feel lonely and can give your best to studies. Engineering studies are quite rigorous in the US, and would demand you to be actively involved in the classroom and beyond with subjects. The US is one of the best places to study engineering.”

Undergraduate engineering programmes in USA take 4 years to complete. Most engineering colleges require a SAT exam score if you’re applying to the UG engineering programme. Students applying to graduate engineering programmes must have a GRE score apart from having a UG degree in engineering, mathematics or science. International students also need to take the Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam. In the US, most undergraduate engineering programs are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) to ensure similar course requirements and standards among universities. Generally, universities in the US, manage their admissions process by themselves. Since the admission criteria vary across universities, you must start applying early.

Institutes of Repute: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of California, Stanford University

AUSTRALIA

Australian shores have invited Indians for close to two decades now, and continue to attract a lot of Indians for higher education. Australia is known for an excellent education system that emphasises  experiential learning instead of rote learning. Their degrees are universally accepted and hold relevance. According to the latest report by Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), India is second to China in the number of visas granted in 2011-12. Overall 253,046 student visas were granted (in 2011-12) until June 30, 2012. Out of this, 33,764 visas were granted to Indian students. This figure represents an increase of 16.6% in comparison with the same period in 2010-11.

To gain entry into an Australian undergraduate course, you need to have the Class 12 passing certificate which is equivalent to Australia’s senior secondary certificate of education. Almost all programmes require an IELTS score, which must not have been taken 24 months before the day of the application and should be more recent. Students should have a minimum IELTS score of 6 and at least 60% in Class 12 board exam.

Australia generally has two intakes in a year – February and July. Students wanting to take admission in an engineering programme, must have studied Mathematics as a compulsory subject in high school i.e from Class 8 till Class 12. Students should have studied Physics and/or Chemistry after class 10. The duration of the course is three years. Tuition for most schools is in the range of A$10,000 to A$16,500 (Rs 5,80,000 to 10,00,000) per year. Scholarships are available to Indian students.

Institutes of Repute: University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of Queensland, Monash University, RMIT University

UK

The mecca of higher education, the United Kingdom, has earned itself the reputation of providing high and quality education. UK Universities and colleges offer more than 1000 courses along with great flexibility in the way a subject can be studied. In the United Kingdom, engineering typically takes 4-5 years of study and results in a Bachelor of Science (BSc), Bachelor of Science Engineering (BScEng), Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or Bachelor of Technology (BTech) degree.

While studying in UK, the cost of education or tuition fee will be your major expense. The cost of study or education in UK varies according to the course and duration of course you are pursuing. You might pay between 11,000 to 14,000 pounds (Rs 11,00,000 to 14,00,000) as tuition fee. Though with newer destinations like Germany and Singapore coming up, and visa rules tightening, an engineering education in UK could become more exclusive.

Institutes of Repute: Oxford University, University of Cambridge, Durham, Nottingham, Warwick

SINGAPORE

Singapore’s proximity to India comes across as a strong point for Indians wanting to pursue higher education there. Presence of world class universities, global exposure and bearable cost of living make this destination comparatively easy on the pocket for Indian students wanting a foreign engineering education. The tuition costs generally vary between S$24,000 to S$30,000 (Rs 10,80,000 to 13,50,000 ) per year. Singapore is one of the few countries that offer generous scholarships to international students, however, getting one is quite competitive.

The admissions process is simpler as compared to any of the western countries. The three universities –National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU) offer internationally recognised degrees. Many international universities also run satellite campuses (institutes of higher learning) or have joint collaborations/programmes with Singaporean universities (local tie-ups). Some of them are: INSEAD, Duke University, Georgia Tech, MIT, etc. Admission to engineering programmes at NUS and NTU depends mostly on the student’s academic performance. Undergraduate engineering programmes are of four years’ duration. The intake is once a year in July. The deadline for submitting the application is different for the schools but decisions are made only after the university receives your Class 12 results.

Institutes of Repute: National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University

GERMANY

Germany provides the best and the most cost-effective study options for overseas students as most colleges are state-funded. Another reason that makes Germany a worthy study destination is the presence of more than 300 institutions of higher education. It is one of the leading countries in the field of research, science and technology. There are no university-sponsored scholarships in Germany, but a number of private and public institutions award scholarships, usually to cover cost of living and books.

In Germany, most programmes are exclusively taught in English, therefore, German language skills are not a prerequisite. If you are willing to learn German, you can join the German language courses offered at the university, which are free of charge. As a foreign student, you are allowed to work 90 days or 180 half days in a calendar year. This right is not restricted for campus jobs like in the US. You can obtain Permanent Residency (PR) within 5 years of working full-time in Germany.

Institutes of Repute: Technische Universität München, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule, Technische Universität, Universität Karlsruhe