Now, state seeks bar on new engineering colleges

Updated on: Friday, November 04, 2011

The state has written to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the umbrella body for professional courses, to not entertain applications for setting up new engineering colleges in Maharashtra.

When admissions closed this year, over 37,000 engineering seats in Maharashtra remained vacant. This translates to a little over 26 per cent of the total seats that are there in close to 400 engineering institutes.

“We do not want the AICTE to accept any new proposals for engineering colleges. Maharashtra does not need them,” said minister for higher and technical education, Rajesh Tope.

“An exception will be made only for those colleges wanting to set up campuses in remote corners of the state that do not have an engineering institute, or engineering colleges that want to offer highly specialised courses that are currently not on offer in the existing institutes,” he added.

The Directorate of Technical Education, the state body that oversees professional courses, is mapping the concentration of engineering institutes across all districts, and drawing up a perspective plan that will be forwarded to the AICTE.

Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Chhattisgarh had earlier written to the council to not approve proposals for new engineering colleges.

Now, state seeks bar on new engineering colleges

More Education news