States appeal AICTE to put a ban on the mushrooming of New Engineering Colleges

Two decades ago, limited number of seats were available for the aspiring engineers. But, now the supply has surpassed the demand which implies that the number of seats is more as compared to the number of engineering aspirants. State Governments have appealed the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to put a ban on the mushrooming of new engineering colleges in India.

S S Mantha, chairman, All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) stated that they have received letters from the Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Chhattisgarh governments regarding the mushrooming of new engineering colleges and telling us not to approve the proposals for new engineering institutes.

As per the AICTE records, India has produced 4.01 lakh engineers in 2003-04, of which 35% were computer engineers. In 2004-05, 1,355 engineering colleges admitted 4.6 lakh students, of which 31% were computer engineers. The number of graduates rose to 5.2 lakh in 2005-06. In last five years the number of seats in engineering colleges has increased threefold.

Presently, there are about 3,393 engineering colleges that have 14.85 lakhs seats available. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh have about 70% tech institutes. AICTE had reported that almost 2 lakh seats remained vacant, when the admission closed this year.

AICTE has also lowered the minimum scores for admission in engineering colleges, hoping there would be a rush of students. But even this relaxation in the entry norms could not fill all the seats. Mantha added that, seats are lying vacant in rural parts of various states. There are no takers for specific engineering programmes, but the core engineering courses of civil, mechanical and electrical still have takers. In order to control and map the growth of colleges, AICTE has asked state governments to pass on copies of perspective plans of all universities.

Source: Richha Bhatnagar (Shiksha Team)