There has been an oft repeated debate as well as enough discussion on choosing the right engineering institute. Let us try and decode two of the popular institutes among engineering aspirants.

The National Institutes of Technology (NIT) are a group of public engineering colleges in India.  NITs were initiallyreferred to as REC’s or Regional Engineering Colleges and were governed by their respective state governments.  The REC’s became NIT’s in the year 2003. The REC’s or NIT’s were founded after the IIT’s as the latter was failing to meet the rising demand of engineering and technology education in India. NIT’s consist of 30 autonomous institutes. These colleges are situated in each major state or territory of the country.  An Autonomous set up allows all NIT’s to set their own curriculum. These institutes offer courses in engineering and technology at all levels.

The Birla Institute of Technology and Science focuses primarily on undergraduate education in engineering and sciences. Established in 1964, BITS has established centers in India as well as Dubai.  Admissions are merit based and administered through the All- India computerized entrance examination BITSAT. BITS offers only fully residential courses at its campuses.

While choosing between the two, aspirants consider the following parameters:

1. Companies founded by students from NIT’s and BITS:This is an important yardstick when choosing the apt engineering institute. Data shows that the number of companies founded by BITS graduates is far more than the companies founded by NIT graduates. Some of the popular companies by BITS alumni are Hotmail and Onida, while Peepul Capital was founded by graduates from NIT Kurukshetra.
2. Total number of students graduating from NIT and BITS: There is a huge difference in the number of students passing out from the institutes in question This is purely because the number of seats offered by NIT’s are far more in number than BITS centers have to offer.
3. Notable positions held in the corporate world by NIT’ians and BITSians: The number of notable positions held by people in the corporate world depends largely on the number of students graduating from an Institute. The higher the number of graduates, more the chances of the alumni holding important positions. In this respect you might find a large number of NIT’ians out there!
4. Average and Highest pay packages offered– Pay packages offered are dependent more on the candidates’ abilities, confidence and academic scores. The institutes have little role to play. From an NIT graduate bagging a package from Facebook to another graduate from BITS bagging highest package in the country till date, there is no debate to prove an institutes’ role in helping you land fatter salaries.
5. Academic and Extra Academic Environment: If this is one of the important points to be considered then BITS will win hands down. Despite being in the education sector for far longer than BITS, the NIT’s offer very little on the Extra Academic front.  The popularity of BITS campuses is hugely driven by the educational and college environments that the centers have to offer. The ambience offered by the NIT’s is not driven towards creating lighter, extra curriculum focused environments.
6. Fee Structures: NIT’s are Government controlled institutes and hence their fee structures are much lower than BITS centers which are privately operated campuses across the county and in Dubai.
7. Infrastructure and Faculty: BITS stands out with respect to its infrastructure which is comparable to any international institute of a good repute. BITS is better equipped to meet the growing demands of students. This has been the result of faster adaptation to changing technologies.BITS is well staffed with its faculty members meeting the required education specifications.

Where NIT’s have been facing shortage of faculty members for a while now, which has been proving to be a grave concern to the Central Ministry of Human Resources.

IIT Vs BITS

IIT Vs NITs