Engineering education offers many possibilities, but also has some common and serious challenges. Students in engineering colleges often face immense stress, peer pressure, intense curricula, deadlines, lab work, regular evaluations and family expectations.

During these times, parental support is extremely important and can make a significant difference in whether the students can cope, thrive and feel backed up by their parents. It is crucial to know the practical ways to support your children during these four years.

Dr Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology, a leading engineering college in Coimbatore, offers students emotional and academic support along with career support systems through mentorship and counselling to advanced training programmes, which encourages students to overcome these difficult challenges and also survive in this competitive industry.

Struggles of the Engineering Students in Their Academic Journey

Engineering is considered a prestigious field of study that offers endless opportunities. But behind this bright journey, students face many hurdles too. The mental health of the engineering students is at a toll. A recent study revealed that 59.3% of Indian engineering students experience mild to severe depression. 78% were dealing with anxiety and academic pressure. 29.3% face stress.

Engineering students also struggle with time management, project submissions and other extracurricular activities. With no time left, they feel isolated and lose their social life. The constant pressure of being exceptional burns them out, which affects both academics and personal life.

A survey conducted in Pune found that 22.7% of engineering students have moderate depression, 48.2% of students have mild depression and 29.1% have no depression. The main factors that cause this depression are parental expectations and financial and personal issues.

MCET understands the struggles of the students and encourages students to participate in support systems such as mentorship programmes and counselling programmes, which help to manage the stress through effective stress management techniques.

Parental Role: Anchor for the Engineering Students

Apart from financial contribution, parents play an important role in engineering education. Their support enhances students’ academics, emotional balance and successful careers.

Strong parental involvement and support can improve the emotional well-being of a student. Open communication of the parents without over-controlling and monitoring the academic progress without pressurizing the children. Constant parent engagement also helps the students to handle academic challenges as well. Parents’ involvement reduces anxiety and depression among the engineering students, which helps them to maintain their mental health. When parents act as an anchor and emotional supporter, it has a positive impact on students struggling with intense project deadlines and academic stress.

Students feel motivated and supported when parents show consistent interest in their academic projects, exams, extracurricular activities and internships. Students feel more confident while facing failures and rejection and have better coping mechanisms than students with minimum or no parental involvement.

Parental support reduces anxiety and depression and improves the mental well-being of the engineering students and enhances their encouragement and motivation. In MCET, parental support plays a key role in enhancing the successful engineering career of the students and acts as a bridge between emotional well-being and academic stress.

Effective Ways to Support the Engineering Students

Open communication with your children is an important thing that every parent must follow, especially for students with immense stress and pressure. Encourage them to talk freely about their feelings and struggles with project work, sleep schedules and exam stress. Listening to their issues without being judgemental is very essential, which encourages them to share more.

Set a reasonable and normal expectation on your children. Over expectation causes stress and anxiety when the students cannot achieve it. Help them to set realistic and achievable goals which balance their academics as well as overall well-being. Tell them it is ok to fail and it is not necessary to be perfect all the time. All that is important is to improve themselves every time.

Support them by arranging extra classes or a tutor to guide them mentally as well as in academics. This will give them guidance and great mentorship. Help them to join a study group where they may get effective peer support. Creating an inclusive home environment by keeping a quiet study space with a proper routine of sleep and food and other healthy habits like regular exercise will help the students to manage and balance the academic stress. MCET also encourages students to follow the discipline and consistency in their engineering life.

Allow your children to take informed decisions such as career choice, time management and career path. Support them when they ask your guidance in taking these important decisions. Make your children understand the importance of sleep, nutritional food, exercise and other extracurricular activities. Normalise reaching out when they feel overwhelmed or feel the signs of being anxious or depressed. Get them professional support to deal with anxiety and depression.

As a parent, stay in touch with the college management and know the students’ project deadlines, exam dates and other academic policies. By knowing this information, you can support your children at home during these tough years.

Signs That No Parents Should Miss in Their Children

Parents should follow the student’s  behavior where they start feeling more stressed and depressed. Some significant warning signs would be an observable drop in college grades and irregular attendance, loss of interest in gatherings, isolation and no social life, lack of sleep, irregular sleep patterns and loss of appetite and showing suicidal signs and self-harm signs.

Parents should have keen observance, and when their children show these signs, they should get a professional and counsellor to help improve their mental health.

MCET and Parents Guide Together For Students’ Success

Along with the management, parents also play an important role in shaping the students’ future engineering careers. MCET offers training and counselling programs, peer support programs and co-curricular activities. Parents should also encourage the students to participate in these programs when the children seek professional as well as mental help. You can also support them by scheduling their timetables, projects, assignments and exams.

This motivates them to balance both their academic and personal lives. Appreciating or celebrating the students for even completing a project, completing a course or mastering a subject and exploring creativity makes them feel supported and encouraged. This partnership between the college and the parents reduced the mental pressure of the students and helped them to not fall into depression and anxiety.

In Dr.MCET, parental involvement combined with the college resources makes the students shine and survive in this competitive industry. Parent support is very crucial in rigorous engineering education. When parents work together with the students, time becomes manageable, stress gets reduced and students will achieve academic success in an easier way.