초록
It is proposed to raise the debate on Engineering and Technical Education at the global economic level and to examine some of the issues facing developing and poorer countries in managing and improving the quality of engineering education in their countries, especially in the context of internet and IT culture After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world is now divided in two realigned blocks: one of developed(rich or advanced) countries which have a social security safety net for their population and another of developing(or poor) countries which have no such luxuries for their population. For the general public in the developing countries, any engineering or technical degree/diploma is a passport to lifelong wellbeing of an individual and his/her extended family. Therefore, the demand for such qualifications is very high and it is almost a rat race amongst school leavers to get into engineering/technical colleges. In view of this booming demand, there are hundreds of privately funded engineering/technical colleges in countries like Philippines, India, Thailand, etc., besides state funded ones. It is extremely difficult to ensure good quality in this mushrooming scenario. There are also many very small poorly resourced developing countries where there is only one engineering school and/or two-three technical colleges. Products of these schools/colleges work only in their own country and education globalization have little or no meaning for them. Besides highlighting the aforementioned general issues, the Paper also presents a few case studies on problems of accreditation and quality assessment in larger developing countries like India and the Philippines. The Paper also discusses the effects of commercialization on the quality of education and social impacts of IT revolution on educational processes.