The country will not have any more new engineering colleges till 2024, as the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has extended the ban on setting up new engineering institutes in India. The ban has been put in place due to low enrollments in engineering and diploma programmes across the country.
In the latest development, the ban on coming up new colleges has been extended for two more years. “Seat vacancy in engineering colleges has only slightly improved, but for it to get better, this ban on new institutes needs to continue,” AICTE chief Sahasrabuddhe told a leading newspaper.
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As per the media reports, in the last few years, there has been a decline in admissions in engineering colleges. In 2015-16 there were around 3 million engineering seats (undergraduate, postgraduate and diploma included), the enrollment dropped to 2.4 million in 2020-21. A 45 per cent seat vacancy has been witnessed across engineering institutes across India in 2020.
Explaining the problem of having more seats and fewer students, Sahasrabuddhe in an interview with TOI said that with more seats than required the revenue which is generated by the students’ fees will decrease. This will further impact the resources of the institution, and also the appointment of faculty.
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“With less revenue, faculty having fewer capabilities will have to be appointed so that they can work for a low salary and it will finally impact the standard of education,” he said. Noting these factors, the committee has advised not to open new engineering colleges till 2024, claimed the chairman.
Speaking about the exception to the rule he added that new institutes have only been approved in districts with not enough government-funded engineering institutes in order to give aspirants the option of studying closer to home. He added that in the last two years, only government-funded new institute approvals have been accepted in order to ensure engineering seats are affordable for students.
Officials had cited the closure of over 340 colleges between 2018-19 and 2020-21 and the ban on opening of no new colleges as the reason behind the drop. According to data shared by the minister, the total approved intake in the AICTE-approved engineering institutions has declined from 26,95,333 in the academic year 2012-13 to 23,66,728 in the academic year 2021-22. The intake was 24,42,948 in 2020-21 and 25,39,682 in 2019-20.
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