A Study on the Higher Education System in India and Factors Affecting the Choice of Teaching Career in IT Education

Abstract

India is a country with high educational values and is considered as a country with an asset of technically sound, motivated and hardworking student strength and dedicated faculty members. But at the same time, there exists shortage of such talented faculty members across different Universities and affiliated Institutes in India. The research objective of the paper is to analyse the different factors that guide teaching career decisions among IT engineering graduates and post-graduates and to find the most significant factors which influences such career choices. The statistical analysis presented in the paper is based on a Survey conducted on the Graduate and Post-Graduate students in a private University in India. The factors considered in the study are Motivation, Perception, Interest, Professional and Financial Security, Career Choice based on Knowledge and skill and finally Inclination towards research. The study reveals the effect of Gender on the perception of teaching career choice and also shows the existence of significantly different effect of the Semester/year of study on the different factors that affects teaching career. The study also reviews the present higher education scenario in India and correlates the factors that affect faculty shortage and career choice based on present Indian perspective. Based on the statistical analysis results the paper provides list of recommendations which would be beneficial and would encourage more individuals to choose a teaching career. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s1p62