Analysis of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) shows that chemical and textile engineering are not popular among students
In order to offer more market-friendly courses to engineering aspirants, the central government has asked technical institutions including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to shut courses that are not getting a good response.
According to government’s own data, around 400 private technical institutions were shut down in the last three years because they were not getting sufficient number of students, and also, those who passed out from those institutions were not employable.
Taking a review of the situation, the Ministry decided to overhaul the engineering education system. It has now on its own, appealed to centrally funded technical institutions to close down the branches and courses that have seen less admissions in the past three years.
The Ministry has also said if the institutions want to introduce new courses and disciplines; they should do so after analysing market opportunity, employability and requirement of higher education.
“All Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs), which are participating in joint counseling sessions have been asked to review the position of vacant seats in the last three years and to revise the number of seats in each discipline after considering employment opportunities, national requirements, available infrastructure and scope for future,” Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of State for HRD, told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
“CFTIs may also consider closure of some disciplines or keep them in abeyance for a few years after following the due process,” he said.
Various disciplines of engineering courses are available under Chemical, Software, Civil and Electronics engineering across various colleges in India. An analysis of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) shows that most number of students enrol for mechanical engineering, followed by computer science, electronics and civil engineering. Branches like chemical and textile engineering get few takers.
The central government has taken a similar route with school education also. It recently asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to shut down vocational courses that have very few takers. The board has recently issued a circular with which they have discontinued 34 of its vocational courses.
MAKING THE CUT
Steps taken by government to overhaul engineering education
- Asking institutes to close down branches that are not getting many takers.
- Making internships mandatory for students to get their engineering degree.
- Introducing a single-window entrance system on the lines of NEET for all engineering colleges.
- Making sure that the new courses that are started in college are market-friendly.
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