All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has barred opening of new engineering colleges for the next 2 years in light of 50 per cent seats remaining vacant in many institutes. The move was suggested by the expert committee headed by IIT Hyderabad Chairman B V R Mohan Reddy.
AICTE has also put a cap on new courses and will allow starting of new courses only in emerging disciplines, reported ANI.
All India Council for Technical Education Chief Anil Sahasrabudhe to ANI on 50% seats vacant, AICTE bars new Engg colleges for 2 yrs: Committee headed by IIT Hyderabad Chairman B V R Mohan Reddy has suggested this decision&new courses are allowed only in emerging areas pic.twitter.com/3QzmVr387w
— ANI (@ANI) February 13, 2020
Engineering and technical education has been under the scanner in the past few years with questions being raised about poor employability of graduates in the country. In July last year, Lok Sabha was informed that AICTE will not allow new conventional disciplines with low employment potential from the academic year 2020-21.
The MHRD Minister Mr. Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' had informed the lower house that introduction of new engineering courses will be allowed only in emerging fields like Artificial Intelligence and Block chain.
AICTE too, in its recommendations last year, had said that there should be no further increase in seats in engineering college. It cited low capacity utilization, 49.8% (Capacity Vs. Enrollment), and said that creation of new capacity should be reviewed every two years starting from 2020.
AICTE had also recommended that no additional seats be approved in traditional engineering areas, and that institutions should be encouraged to convert current capacity in traditional disciplines to emerging new technologies.
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