City to get two new engineering colleges

Updated on: Friday, June 17, 2011

The glut in the number of engineering seats in the country is one reason for the apparent slowdown in expansion of professional colleges. When admissions closed in 2010, close to two lakh seats in professional technical colleges went abegging in the country. The regulatory body will allow institutes, which have not fulfilled certain norms, to appeal once they fill the lacunae. “So, another 300 colleges may appeal to start this year,” said SS Mantha, AICTE chairman.

Most new engineering colleges will offer popular streams like electronics, mechanical engineering, computer engineering and civil engineering. “In Maharashtra, most of the growth is concentrated in Pune. But we feel that the number of seats will go up a bit during the appeal phase. We will declare the total number of seats once all the colleges receive a letter of approval,” said SK Mahajan, director of the state’s Directorate of Technical Education. Of the 27 new colleges, 12 colleges will offer management and two new colleges will start in Mumbai. For years, several academicians have worried about a fundamental disconnect between quality and expansion in India’s professional education. “Can the country boast of 100 engineering colleges that impart cutting edge education?” asked a principal of an engineering college based in Pune.

But the AICTE has for long felt that meeting the massive demand for professional education is imperative. Twenty years ago, merely 1% of aspiring engineers got a seat, while now nearly 80% manage to find places, noted AICTE officials. But it is time, said educationists that an ever-increasing intake capacity must stop masquerading as an asset in the educational sector.

City to get two new engineering colleges

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