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1. Introduction
Engineering education equips individuals with the skills essential to address basic human needs, alleviate poverty, promote and secure sustainable development, respond to emergency situations, reconstruct infrastructure, and promote intercultural cooperation (UNESCO, 2023). Engineering education sector has emerged as a significant domain, attracting and empowering students globally. In India, since the establishment of the first engineering college in 1847, Thomason College of Civil Engineering (IIT-Roorkee, 2023), engineering education has expanded rapidly. The sector shoulders the responsibility of providing a skilled workforce to industries like construction, manufacturing, science, IT, etc. Premier institutes like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) consistently rank among the top engineering institutions globally (QS, 2023). In the academic year 2022–2023, 5,873 approved engineering institutions reported an overall intake of 2,374,205 candidates, more than 50% of whom were enrolled in engineering undergraduate courses (AICTE, 2023).
The engineering programme, like all programmes, needs to make sure that its structure is adaptable to student and market demands (Shahid et al., 2022). Despite its prominence, the sector faces several challenges. An employability report revealed that approximately 50% of national students across various prominent disciplines were not competent enough to be employable in the industry (Wheebox, 2023). The employability of engineering students in 2023, according to the same report, stood at 57.44%. In the same year, while the employability of engineering programmes like Information Technology, Computer Science, Electronics and Communication Engineering exceeded 60%, that of Civil Engineering stood at a mere 34%. This disparity is noteworthy, particularly given that the construction sector, which employs a significant portion of civil engineers, contributes about 9% to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Kumar, 2023). The real estate sector (housing, retail, hospitality, and commercial) is expected to contribute 13% to the national GDP by 2025 (IBEF, 2023). Real estate players invest in centralized processes to source organized manpower and hire qualified professionals in areas like project management, architecture, and engineering (IBEF, 2023). Institutes with Civil Engineering departments across the Middle East and the United States also find themselves recording enrolments that have decreased by 60% over the last five years (Yehia et al., 2023). Researcher Sander Valstar (San Diego, California) confirmed this industry preparation gap from personal experience as he found writing software (CS Sector) in the...