Over 500 Engineering colleges in AP lurking to be closed

Hyderabad: With numerous Engineering colleges’ creeping up across the state of Andhra Pradesh in last few years has brought down the obsession among students to join these professional colleges as they lack proper basic facilities resulting in meager enrolments forcing several colleges to close down.

A decade back, Engineering colleges and technical institutes were found only in Hyderabad and few other cities around the capital city.  As a result, the craze among the students to join these profession colleges escalated radically. Lot of students poured into these places to carry out Under Graduation in Engineering, Medicine, Pharmacy and Computer Science at these colleges. 

But, few years later the situation changed completely with several Engineering colleges and Technical institutions coming up across the entire state that resulted in drop in enthusiasm among students to join these courses and institutions. Many students are disinclined to join most of these colleges with a drastic drop in admissions forcing the colleges to close down.

Presently, there are over 700 engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh providing over 3 lakh seats. In the last academic year, 2011-2012, there were over 1 lakh seats going vacant without any takers. Several colleges had only less than 100 students joining. As several private players constructing colleges without proper infrastructure, without proper faculties and due to lack proper laboratories and other facilities were reasons behind for students not opting for these colleges.

Another reason for the drastic downfall of admission is the due to the frequent protests on the call for a separate state Telengana. Due to this political row, many students moved on to colleges in the neighboring states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka rather than opting to study in their home state that was ripped apart due to the political turmoil.

Nearly 143 institutions from 14 states have applied to the AICTE to close down their institutions, among which 56 institutions are from Andhra Pradesh. Among these 56 institutions, 44 colleges did not even have 10 students enrolled in the last academic year.  

Apart from that, 96 colleges had 50% fewer admission than the permissible number. Furthermore, 116 colleges did not get even 100 students admitted in the last academic year, told a higher official from Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education.

Due to various reasons like poor infrastructure, lack of faculties in colleges only 5 to 8 per cent of the passing out Engineering students are employable, reveals a study by Nasscom.

It was found that among the 700 Engineering and Technical institutes found in the sate of Andhra Pradesh, 500 did not have proper infrastructure, lacked proper faculties and other laboratories though the buildings are big and aloft. All these colleges are lurking to be shut down immediately.

Engineering colleges told to set up vocational skill centres

Chandigarh: The Punjab government directed engineering colleges in the state to set up vocational skill development centres.

A decision to this effect was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at a high-level meeting on "Vocational Training and Skill development - Vision Punjab".

Badal has asked the engineering colleges to establish at least one such centre in their respective institute to impart quality training to uneducated, drop outs and unemployed youth especially with rural background, an official release said.

The Chief Minister also approved a proposal mooted by the CII for establishing skill training 'Gurkuls' in industrial towns to impart quality vocational training to the youth.

Top engineering colleges may hike fee

Of the 900-odd colleges, only 44 submit their financial statements for revision of fee to AFRC

Fee in at least a few top engineering and other professional colleges may be hiked this year with the Supreme Court asking the State government to provide an opportunity to some colleges to present their views over fee hike.

Out of the 900-odd colleges, only 44 colleges submitted their financial statements for revision of fee to the Admission and Fee Regulation Committee (AFRC) as per guidelines and these colleges will now get a chance to present their views. Officials said among them only a few have submitted proposals and documents in support of their claim and they may seek a revision in fee for the 2012-13 academic year.

A senior official agreed that the government may be forced to increase the fee in those colleges, which can satisfy the AFRC that they have been implementing the UGC pay scales to teachers and provided all the facilities to students as per the norms. However, the final picture is likely to emerge on May 9 when the government has to submit its report in the Supreme Court.

‘No other option'

Officials said among the 44 colleges some have promised to implement the scales if fee is hiked while some claimed that they are in the process of providing salaries as per pay scales. However, only a few colleges have submitted documents to prove they are already implementing the pay scales.

Officials agreed that they would have no other option but to increase the fee if the Supreme Court directs so. However, the hike will be limited to some among these 44 colleges only that include some top colleges preferred by the top rankers. 

19 % seats in Engg colleges, B schools vacant in 2011-12

New Delhi: About 19 per cent of seats in engineering colleges and business schools across the country remained unoccupied in the the 2011-12 academic season, the government said.
 
In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purandeswari said that of the total 14,85,894 seats in engineering colleges across the country, 2,82,320, or 19 per cent, remained unoccupied in the year 2011-12.
 
Similarly, 66,988 seats, or 19 per cent, of the 3,52,571 total positions in business management schools remained vacant last year, the Minister said, citing data from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
 
Purandeswari also informed the House that 20 per cent of faculty posts in engineering colleges and 23 per cent in management schools were lying vacant in the said year. 
 
On the lack of skill sets among students from lower-rung technical institutions, the Minister said,"AICTE was asked to constitute a Committee and suggest measures to redesign the programme of Finishing School throughout the country."
 
"Also, as a long term measure to enhance the employability of engineering graduates, AICTE is taking steps to update the syllabus of engineering courses," she added. 
 
Finishing School is a pilot programme launched in 2007 to enhance the employability of engineering graduates. But a 2010 review found that it failed to meet desired results. 
 
Replying to another query, Purandeswari said the government has so far received 110 proposals for setting up polytechnics under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode.

Engineering applications for Anna Varsity from first week of May

Chennai: Application forms for admission to Engineering courses in colleges affiliated to Anna university will be issued from first week of May, Vice- chancellor, Anna university, Mannar Jawahar told.

Towards engineering admission for the forthcoming academic year, the Vice Chancellor, Anna University, Mannar Jawahar held a high level meeting with heads of departments on March 30.

Speaking to press persons after the first coordination committee meeting for this year, he said" Exact date of issuing of application will be announced later. Initially, 2 lakh applications will be printed and if necessary 50,000 more applications will be additionally printed".

Meanwhile, Justice Balasubramanian,chairman of the fee fixation committee for professional colleges in the state, denied media reports about the education fee for private self finance colleges had gone up two fold.

He also said," So far out of the 520 engineering colleges in the state, only 164 colleges have sent proposals towards fee revision. After getting proposals from all the the engineering colleges and suggestions from parents and students a final decision on fee revision will be taken after April 15".

The vice-chancellor pointed out that there were 1.5 lakhs seats in over 520 engineering colleges in the state.

This year, the university also plans to complete the entire counseling process within 40 days, Mannar Jawahar, said. 

Seats go vacant, but zest for engineering colleges continues

AICTE processing 104 applications from trusts, societies

Despite several thousands of seats falling vacant in engineering courses in Tamil Nadu in the last academic year, the State's educational entrepreneurs have not lost their zest for starting new engineering colleges.

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) officials say they are processing 104 applications from trusts and societies for starting technical institutions, including over 50 applications for engineering colleges.

The State has 502 engineering colleges and 22 schools or institutes of architecture for which admissions are through a single window system of counselling under Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA).

Of the two lakh and more seats available under both government and management quota in engineering education, 42,000 fell vacant under the government quota and about 25,000 under management quota last year, say Anna University officials.

Last year, there were nearly 140 applications to start technical institutions but most of them were rejected initially for failing to obtain building certificates from the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP). Permission was granted to colleges in phases and the process continued even in the final stages of counselling.

“This year, the AICTE plans to complete the process of approval by April 30,” says an official here. The filing of online applications for academic year 2012-13 was closed by December 2011 and the processing of online applications with respect to all approvals for existing and new institutions would be over by March 31. 

After the verification of documents submitted by the trusts and societies, the AICTE Southern Regional Office here has forwarded the applications to the headquarters in New Delhi for further scrutiny after which inspection teams will be dispatched to verify the claims of the applicants in all aspects.

“If the approvals for new engineering colleges are issued early by the AICTE, it will be easier for students and parents to personally visit the campuses and check the infrastructure and faculty qualifications,” says Rhymend Uthariaraj, secretary, TNEA. Last year, some colleges could not be included into the admission process as it was too late.

The AICTE is thinking of freezing the number of engineering institutions from 2014 as States like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have breached the 500 mark. In the past five years, 40 to 50 new engineering colleges are being set up each year in the State. “We have written to the Tamil Nadu government seeking its opinion on the necessity for new colleges,” says a senior AICTE official.

The previous Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government had written to the AICTE not to approve new engineering colleges from academic year 2011-12 but the apex body for technical education continued to grant approvals (in the initial months of the AIADMK regime), pushing it past 500.