Next academic year, engineering seats could be down by a lakh: AICTE

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in its handbook that was released on Friday said that the number of engineering college seats in the country will come down by a lakh in the next academic year i.e. 2018/19.

According to an Indian Express report, technical courses where student admission has been less than 30 per cent in the last five years consistently will have their intake reduced by half from the academic year starting July 2018, while programmes where admissions have been zero during this period will be closed immediately.

In August this year, the AICTE said it has decided to close down those technical colleges which recorded less than 30% admissions in the last five years.

According to ACTED data, there are 10,361 engineering institutions in the country that are approved by the AICTE with a total intake capacity of over 37 lakh students. Out of this, 27 lakh seats are lying vacant.

In the last five years, around 4,633 courses and 527 institutes have been shut down due to low performance and poor enrollment. In Maharashtra, 921 courses and 69 institutes have closed in five years span. The colleges offered courses such as engineering, architecture, polytechnic, management, hotel management, etc.

The decision was made after the colleges failed to reach 30% enrollment consecutively for the last five years.

However, if there are enough revenue sources other besides fees and college is able to maintain the student-faculty ratio to pay the faculty according to the norms, then the colleges will not be shut down.

"But if the quality is suffering and students are not employable despite paying high fees, there is no point in allowing the colleges to run," Sahastrabuddhe said.