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Patna,(BiharTimes): For train-load of students from Bihar, who travel to South every year to get admission in engineering colleges, there is a sort of good news for them. The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) on June 10 gave approval to about 100 new technical institutes and about 200 more are likely to get its nod by the end of the month. They all will be offering courses from the academic session 2011-12. |
It is now the problems of plenty as last year about two lakh seats (15 per cent of the total) went vacant. With more colleges coming up the number of unfilled seats is likely to increase this year.
According to reports the AICTE had received applications for 1,062 proposed institutions that sought to start courses in engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture from this year.
The Council in its June 10 meeting approved 175 institutions, including 100 engineering colleges, and asked the rest to correct their shortcomings. It will meet again in the last week of June to see if these 887 institutions have taken corrective steps. Some 200 proposed engineering institutions that narrowly fell short of the norms are expected to receive approval.
About 300 engineering colleges, accounting for about 75,000 seats, were approved last year and nearly 300 new engineering colleges are likely to be approved this year too.
According to AICTE chairperson S S Mantha the approval process is going on and the picture will become clear by the end of this month.
The proposed institutions that were denied approval at the June 10 meeting were found to be deficient in aspects such as area, infrastructure, faculty, books and laboratory facilities. However, about 300 of them, including 200 proposed engineering colleges, had minor shortcomings relating to equipment and books that could easily be corrected.
It needs to be recalled that the number of engineering colleges has risen four-fold in the country in the past six years. It was around 1,500 in 2005-06 but the figure stands at 6,043 in 2010-11. The rise in number of colleges has led to huge seat vacancies too. About 40 per cent BTech seats remained vacant in Orissa. The percentage was around 30 per cent in Karnataka and West Bengal, and less than 10 per cent in Uttar Pradesh.
Most of the vacancies were in branches like production, instrumentation and construction engineering. But there is a huge demand for seats in civil and mechanical engineering, computer science and electronics.
Engineering colleges situated in small towns and rural areas have witnessed huge vacancies. But this year most of the proposed institutions which have applied for approval are situated in the metros and state capitals.
High fees charged by private engineering colleges are another factor responsible for vacancies.
The number of government colleges, which charges less fee, is just 250 whereas there are 6,000-odd institutions offering BTech degree.
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