No new engg colleges from 2020-21: AICTE

No new engg colleges from 2020-21: AICTE

Pune: No new engineering colleges will come up from 2020-21 in the country. All India Technical Council Education (AICTE) has stated that the council will not approve any new engineering colleges from the academic year 2020-21. 

The decision comes after a major decline in engineering admissions and almost 50 per cent vacancies in these colleges. Nonetheless, AICTE has also decided to reduce seats for a few engineering courses which have less demand and will increase intake for courses like Artificial Intelligence and Data Sciences, stated AICTE Chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe. 

“Yes, considering the low admission ratio in engineering colleges and vacant seats in several colleges, the council will not approve any new engineering institution to be set up from the said academic year,” Sahasrabudhe told Sakal Times.

“There will also be no additional seats at existing colleges for traditional engineering courses like mechanical, electrical, civil, electronics and metallurgy. But the council will permit increase in seats in niche high-tech new areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, robotics, automation, block chain, data science, data analytics and cyber security,” he added.

A government committee headed by BVR Mohan, Chairman of Board of Governors at IIT-Hyderabad and industrialists had submitted a report, which advised AICTE to not allow setting up of new engineering institutions in the country.

Around 50 per cent seats remained vacant across the country in academic year 2018-19. For 2018-19 as many as 241 engineering colleges accounting for 80,000 seats had appealed for closure. 

Among these 54 colleges were approved for closure. In 2017-18, around 66 colleges were closed down, 149 in 2016-17 and 125 in 2015-16. The trend is also followed in polytechnic colleges. Sakal Times had reported that polytechnic colleges in Maharashtra have observed a 60 per cent dip in admissions.

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