'No need for new engineering, mgmt colleges'

All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has finally decided to put a blanket ban on opening up of new engineering and management colleges across India from next academic year. The decision was expected from some time now as many of the existing management institutes are already struggling to find enough students to stay afloat.

In Uttar Pradesh alone, about 215 new engineering colleges and 282 new management institutes have come up in the last five years. A study of State Entrance Examination (SEE) 2011 report brought out the fact that the total number of engineering seats offered were 1,15,379 but only 25,903 students took admission. Similarly, 32,228 management seats were on offer but only 4,373 students took admission in various institutes.

With less than 20% students in some of these colleges, blanket ban on new engineering and management colleges have come as a relief to the education sector. New engineering and management institutes also have to struggle with lack of infrastructure and trained faculty members and are hence, unable to offer quality training to their students.

Yet, there are a few who do not agree with this move. Mr. S K Shukla, Registrar of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, Faizabad thinks that the blanket ban is not fair to areas like Bundekhandm where there is still a dearth of engineering and management colleges. He thinks that the ban should be more prudent and based on ground scenarios. See the details here

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