AICTE turns down plea to ban new engineering colleges

Updated on: Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) turned down the state government's plea seeking a temporary ban on new engineering colleges owing to a large number of vacant seats.

The rejection is a major embarrassment for the state technical education department which was asked to find out ways to improve the quality of education rather than promoting monopoly of the existing institutes.

The department shot a letter to the AICTE stating that thousands of seats are still vacant in engineering colleges. "The fresh approvals would only aggravate the situation...it should not be given till the existing one's have adequate students," the letter had stated.

The AICTE team comprising chairman SS Mantha, two officials and two advisors visited the city on Thursday. While interacting with the state government officials and vice-chancellor of Rajasthan Technical University, the team found the government's demand inappropriate.

Mantha said the council cannot stop any party from opening an engineering college if it fulfils the required conditions. "Colleges providing quality education will never face student crunch. Others will fade out automatically," he added.

The refusal came as a setback for the state government and several engineering colleges which are at wits' end to find out ways to fill vacant seats. This year, of the total number of seats in 150 colleges, 15,000 are vacant. Previous year too, over 11,000 seats were vacant forcing a few colleges to declare 'zero session'.

The team suggested that the "state should do an analysis of the demand-supply ratio" and collect data on the number of students graduating from schools every year.

The number of engineering colleges has increased significantly in the state over the past few years. In 2009, the state had 71 private and 10 government engineering colleges. The number jumped to 150 within two years, which is disproportionate against the number of students pursuing the subject.

With strict rules for approving applications for opening colleges, Mantha said the number of applications have come down. In 2009-10, AICTE received 2,100 applications of which 600 were granted permission. The number fell down to 1,100 in 2010-11, of which 350 managed to get the approval. This year, till date 90 applications have been received.

The AICTE is a statutory body whose approval is necessary to start courses in streams such as engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture.

Times of India

AICTE turns down plea to ban new engineering colleges

More Education news