No More Engineering Colleges From 2020? AICTE May Ban New Engineering Colleges In India
AICTE has also be suggested to review the generation of new capability after every two years.
Fact – There are more than 10,000 engineering colleges in India and about 1.5 million engineers passing out each year.
With the vast number of engineering colleges and fresh batches of engineers each year, the quality of education and infrastructure is bound to sink.
A solution to the problem is here now – AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) has decided not to allow set up of new engineering colleges from 2020.
51% of Engineering Seats Remain Vacant?
An investigation in December 2017 showed that more than half the seats – 51% of 15.5 lakh seats in 3291 engineering colleges in 2016-17 remained vacant.
Following which, AICTE announced a reduction in intake to help resolve the issue of vacant seats. When this step failed to address the problem, AICTE appointed a committee that is headed by former NASSCOM chairperson and industrialist B V R Mohan Reddy.
The same investigation showed the bad picture of the state of engineering colleges – alleged corruption; poor infrastructure, the absence of worthy teaching faculty, labs and lack of a healthy technical atmosphere.
All these factors play a major role in the increasing unemployment of the hordes of graduates that pass out each year.
Suggestions to AICTE By the Committee:
To help AICTE deal with this issue, the panel offered some suggestions:
- No new engineering colleges to be set up from the year 2020 and
- New undergraduate programmes to be introduced in the fields of artificial intelligence, the blockchain, robotics, quantum computing, knowledge sciences, cybersecurity, and 3D printing and design and style.
- No additional seats should be approved in traditional engineering areas such as mechanical, electrical, civil and electronics
- Direct current capacity of traditional streams like the ones mentioned above to new and emerging fields.
More than half of the total number of engineering seats remain untaken every year, therefore AICTE has been advised by a committee, headed by IIT-Hyderabad chairman B V R Mohan Reddy, to stop allowing new set up of engineering colleges from 2020, although concessions will be made for those applications already in the pipeline.
Report and Response
The report by the panel says, “While we take such a serious decision, we also recognize that there could be some applications in the pipeline for additional/new capacity applied in the last one or two years. These may be pending for want of some minor clearances. So, applications made in the current year and the past two years may be considered for starting institutions if the infrastructure is already in place.”
Anil Sahastrabuddhe, head of AICTE, informed that a report has been submitted by the government panel and its suggestions will be taken into consideration by the technical education regulator.
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