UP colleges face closure as students stay away

About two dozen colleges affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) may have to be closed down for dearth of candidates as more than 40,000 seats in various streams are vacant this year.

After counselling for the year 2009-2010 following the joint entrance test conducted by the university, some 42,000 seats in 598 colleges under the UPTU have remained vacant, sources in the university said.

The worst hit are new colleges which do not have proper infrastructure and hence candidates have given them a miss, sources said.

The exact figures of the vacant seats would be known to the university only in the first week of November when the enrollment forms are dispatched as the colleges which face shortfall of candidates through the counselling process fill them on their own.

The figure of unfilled seats last year had stood at around 19,000 and the steep rise in vacant seats this year can be attributed to recession and rise in the number of colleges by around 180, sources said.

There had been a number of colleges which were opened without proper infrastructure, campus, lab and faculty, especially in remote areas and they are the ones which face dearth of candidates, sources said. Among the streams which are least  referred by the candidates are B Pharma and B Tech in instrumentation and chemical engineering, sources said.

Sources in the university said that about two dozen colleges faced a real threat of closure for want of candidates as they might find it difficult to meet their expenses and they include the ones which offer B Pharma courses.

While only a handful of colleges keep a tab of the placement of their students, the majority have no knowledge of the status of their old students, sources said, adding some pass outs in recent years could have opted for jobs which have nothing to do with their academic qualification.

According to experts, the state has a requirement of some 30,000 engineers per year which could be met with 100 odd colleges. However, there are some 598 colleges which keep increasing every year, sources said.

These colleges offer courses in MBA, MCA, architecture, pharmacy, bio-technology among others and together have a capacity of over 1.14 lakh students, they added.

Lucknow

About two dozen colleges affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) may have to be closed down for dearth of candidates as more than 40,000 seats in various streams are vacant this year.

After counselling for the year 2009-2010 following the joint entrance test conducted by the university, some 42,000 seats in 598 colleges under the UPTU have remained vacant, sources in the university said.

The worst hit are new colleges which do not have proper infrastructure and hence candidates have given them a miss, sources said.

The exact figures of the vacant seats would be known to the university only in the first week of November when the enrollment forms are dispatched as the colleges which face shortfall of candidates through the counselling process fill them on their own.

The figure of unfilled seats last year had stood at around 19,000 and the steep rise in vacant seats this year can be attributed to recession and rise in the number of colleges by around 180, sources said.

There had been a number of colleges which were opened without proper infrastructure, campus, lab and faculty, especially in remote areas and they are the ones which face dearth of candidates, sources said. Among the streams which are least  referred by the candidates are B Pharma and B Tech in instrumentation and chemical engineering, sources said.

Sources in the university said that about two dozen colleges faced a real threat of closure for want of candidates as they might find it difficult to meet their expenses and they include the ones which offer B Pharma courses.

While only a handful of colleges keep a tab of the placement of their students, the majority have no knowledge of the status of their old students, sources said, adding some pass outs in recent years could have opted for jobs which have nothing to do with their academic qualification.

According to experts, the state has a requirement of some 30,000 engineers per year which could be met with 100 odd colleges. However, there are some 598 colleges which keep increasing every year, sources said.

These colleges offer courses in MBA, MCA, architecture, pharmacy, bio-technology among others and together have a capacity of over 1.14 lakh students, they added.