Several educational institutes apply for closing down IT departments

Updated on: Monday, December 13, 2010

Compared to a decade ago when careers in IT had been the favorite career choice among students across the nation, the scenario today is in stark contrast to before with not many choosing a career in the IT field.

Several colleges in the country are now deliberating over closing their IT departments. According to data received from the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), the body that is responsible for professional technical education in India, one in every three institutes that offer courses in IT have sent an application asking to close down their IT departments.

AICTE Chairman S.S. Mantha has said that the council has received applications from more than 1000 institutes, requesting to either close down their IT departments or convert the seats allotted to the department for other departments such as mechanical or civil.

Because of the large number of such applications, the AICTE has rejected them all. It has ordered all institutes that wish to shut down their IT departments to first get a no-objection certificate from their respective state governments and then supplement that with their applications.

Mantha added that shutting down so many IT departments in institutes all at once would have resulted in an imbalanced growth of other streams. So far, only 6 colleges have been able to acquire no-objection certificates from their affiliating university and state government.

Even so, most institutes that had applied for closure of their IT departments earlier will be applying again to close their IT departments for the academic session beginning in 2011.

Mass closing of IT departments all over the country could result in several issues such as what would happen to the faculty that teach IT at institutes as well as the infrastructure that has been set up for the stream.

Several educational institutes apply for closing down IT departments

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