Various states across India have asked the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) not to give approval to new engineering colleges and management institutions. This request was made on the basis of increasing number of vacant seats in the engineering and management colleges. The number of such institutions has increased drastically over the past three years and this has resulted in a situation where supply exceeds demand. On the basis of the requests made by different states, the AICTE has decided not to give permission for the setting up of new engineering and management colleges from 2014 onwards.

Too many professional colleges in India

In India, there are 3393 engineering colleges spread across various states with 14.86 lakh seats and 3900 management colleges with 3.5 lakh seats open for admission. In 2011 itself AICTE observed that there were about 3 lakh seats that were vacant after the admissions were over.

In the state of Kerala itself, there are more than 10,000 seats that are not filled in various engineering colleges. It is observed that a large number of students from self financing engineering colleges fail to earn an engineering degree and then number of candidates doing so in the first attempt is very miniscule. The main reason for this is the lack of quality education. There are not many qualified and talented faculty members who are capable of providing quality education to the students. In such a situation, setting up of more institutions is going to further worsen the condition. What is the use of earning an engineering or management degree without proper learning? What will be the fate of those who do not earn a degree even after attending college for over four years?

State government concerned with increasing vacant seats in professional colleges

Some of the states have asked the All India Council for Technical Education to stop taking applications immediately. But since the preliminary activities for setting up engineering colleges starts two years before the application is filed, the AICTE has decided to ban the setting up of engineering colleges after two years. The council will review the situation after two years and will decide on whether to stop accepting application for setting up of professional colleges.

AICTE received about 204 applications for setting up engineering colleges and 86 for the setting up of new management colleges, this year. The number of applications from the southern states has declined this year.

No more new colleges: A move in the right direction from AICTE

The requests made the state governments not to grant permission for setting up new engineering and management colleges is seen as a step in the right direction. With a large number of engineering colleges operating across the country, there are lakhs of seats that are left unfilled. So there is no logical reason behind setting up of new engineering colleges or management colleges across the country. Moreover the engineering colleges are not serving the purpose of creating skilled professionals. A recent study from NASSCOM says that only 25% of the students coming out of these institutions are employable. Professional education has nowadays become more like a business and that is the reason behind the increasing number of professional institutions.

Some experts suggest that an appropriate move would be to expand the capacity of the existing professional colleges rather than adding new colleges but this is a workable model only if demand exceeds supply. But in the present condition it does not seem feasible. What the government and the AICTE needs is to do to ensure that colleges provide quality education that makes the students professionals and capable of finding a job of their choice.